


Not a God

by JeckParadox



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Celestial Dragons, Gen, Insanity, Marineford, Marines, Redemption, Religion, Revolutionary War, Slavery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-06-07 18:17:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6818935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeckParadox/pseuds/JeckParadox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enel has reached Fairy Vearth, but finds himself without a purpose. Looking back toward the Earth, he remembers his first loss, and decides to see what else the Blue Sea has to offer, becoming one of the most wanted people in the world in the process. An Enel Redemption Fic.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not a God](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4532766) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



_The moon was where God lived, and ruled over all from. Vearth, so precious in the sky, was most bountiful there, the beautiful pearl in the night, high above the highest clouds. Birka was, like many sky-islands, very religiously dominated. Enel was raised from childhood with stories of God, of fate, of power._

_When he sees a man struck by lightning die, he asks why._

_"It was the will of God." Replies the Head Monk._

_He asks why._

_"It is not mortal's place to question God."_

_He asks why. The monk smiles._

_"God works in mysterious ways. God's Judgement is always sound. Perhaps that man had sinned, in such a way that God punished him with the lightning. Perhaps that man was faithful to the deepest of his bones, and God freed him from his mortal coil, so that the man may join him in Paradise all the sooner." The Monk said, gesturing at the Moon. "But, I do not know. And you do not know. God will tell us things, sometimes if we ask, but only what he decides we need to know. I do not know why God sent his holy judgement to smite the traveler, and as such, that is why it is up to God to judge mortals, and not for mortals to judge themselves."_

_The moon was where the dead went, if they were good. Those that were good had light souls, and floated upward. Those that were evil were heavy, and fell through the clouds to the Blue Sea below, and even below that, into the abyss, where the demons lived. As such, many believed that, as inhabitants of the skies, they were more virtuous than the people of the Blue Sea, who were closer to the abyss. The Head Monk said the opposite. "Those who live in the sky have too much pride, and when they fall, they fall faster and harder. Humans do not belong in the sky, we are heavy creatures. Evil is a natural inclination of humans, whether they live in the Blue Seas or the White Seas."_

_Enel often thought about God._

_God chose who lived and who died. His judgement was not to be questioned, as he is wiser and greater than any mortal. God is different from humans, who are heavy, who do not belong in the sky, who live only by clinging to bits of the Vearth that stick to the clouds. Humans belonged on the Blue Sea, and God belonged on the moon, with the good dead._

_He wondered if he was good._

_One day, he found a strange fruit, a pumpkin, off-colored. Blue and white and gold, rather than green and orange. Covered in swirls._

_He took a bite, and gagged._

_He thought, afterwards, that perhaps he was God. He was no longer a human with a heavy body, who would fall to the Blue Sea. He could fly, he was Lightning, he was the force of God's judgement. And he picked who was judged._

_The Head Monk's apprentice, a nun who had spent her entire life training her Mantra and reading scripture, was struck by lightning. She died painlessly in an instant, in the middle of her evening prayer. Enel asked why she had died._

_Mournfully, the Head Monk said "It was the will of God."_

_It had been Enel's will._

_And with that, it was proven. Enel spoke to the populace of Birka, displayed his power, and took on his mantle as God._

_He then devised his grand plan, a vessel that would return him home, to Fairy Vearth, and chose among the Birkans those who would be most useful, his most faithful, his Enforcers, his Priests._

_And then he judged Birka. Humans, after all, did not belong in the sky. All their bodies fell to the Blue Sea, but he knew that among them, there would be souls who would float up to Fairy Vearth, and those souls that fell with their bodies. With his Mantra, he could hear their voices, their words, their actions. He could feel their faith in him. The nun, his first judgement, he was sure ascended, as well as the Head Monk._

_When he ascended himself, joining all the noble dead in Fairy Vearth, he would meet them again, and he would be complete in his Godhood. He would ascend from merely being God in the body of Enel the Invincible Logia, to coming into his Godhood. He would look back on all that had happened, and he would know why he did it._

_He would see who of Birka he had judged to go to Heaven and which to go to Hell, and he would know why he chose those fates for them._

* * *

 

There was nothing on the moon.

No, that wasn't quite right. There were automatons, a castle, ruins. Some _damn pirates_.

There were no palaces, there were no trees, no flowers no rivers. The Head Monk wasn't there, and neither was the nun. None of the Birkans, none of the Shandorians and Skypieans he had judged after them. None of the victims of his Priest's Noble Game. 

he was alone

in a cold desert.

And he still didn't know why. 

Looking up into the night sky, a beautiful blue jewel, infinitely more beautiful than the Fairy Vearth he had watched since childhood, stood above him. The Blue Seas were interrupted by the Red Line, and speckled throughout were the millions of emerald dots that were islands. Circling, in great, wonderful flowers, were the White Seas on the surface of the jewel. 

That was where he belonged. He...

He was not a god.

He had lost the fight. A human's fists brought him to unconsciousness. He had to _escape_. He was _lucky_ to escape. He had only lived by the will of God. And he...

After losing.

After being brought down to that level. The level of a mere human, in fear, receiving judgement for his crimes...

He did not will himself to live. 

_If he was not a God;_

_He was a murderer. He was arrogant. He was just a human who had indulged himself in sin._

For the first time since he had received his invincible body, he felt heavy.

 

He decided it was about time he fell to the Blue Sea. 

Humans...

Humans did not belong in the sky, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

He channeled his power into the Arc Maxim, and soon he was descending back toward the Earth. His great ship had taken great amounts of damage over the course of the fight, flight, and landing. 

...He would not be able to return to the moon.

The passage through space was harsh, there was no air to breathe, it was colder than anything he had ever experienced, but that wasn't a problem for Enel. As long as he wasn't submerged in water, he could survive anything. 

It took a long time, the moon had been farther away than he had thought, and several times during the trip he wondered if his ship wouldn't survive the fall, if the jet dials and propellers would simply give out half-way there, and leave him to fall uncontrollably fast into the Blue Sea. He didn't think it would be a problem when it did happen. He could fly quite a distance, after all. As long as he was nearby something to land on, he would be fine. The jewel got closer and closer, taking up most of his vision. The Arc Maxim began to turn, reorienting itself to Earth's gravity, spinning around so that instead of being a massive blue and white ceiling, it was now below them, with the stars and moon once again above him, as they should be. 

He passed through the clouds, feeling weak as the water surrounded him briefly, but most clouds weren't dense enough to match the White Seas, and it didn't drown him. All the same, when he passed through them, closer to the Blue Sea than he had ever known, he was relieved. It was... warmer, closer to the ground. The air was thicker and deeper. After spending so long in a vacuum, and before then only living in the sky islands, it was amazing, to be able to breathe air so rich. 

He had aimed for the Red Line, when he lowered through the clouds. If the Maxim did end up failing suddenly, it would be better if there was solid earth beneath them. It would give him the chance to at least salvage as much gold and dials from the ship as he could. As he got closer and closer to the ground, his Mantra flickered with voices. Far, far below him, just at the edge of his range and just far enough that he wasn't able to clearly see it, he felt the presence of a city. There were thousands of people down there.

His lightning powers allowed him to increase his range by picking up on electrical frequencies. Where most Mantra users were merely able to sense the intentions of others, he with the aid of his powers could sense emotions, and even powerful thoughts. He could literally hear the most fervent of the Skypieans prayers when they thought them. He didn't often grant those favors though.

Reflecting on it, he was not a kind god. 

God was always right, and he felt justified in following his every whim... but when he was younger, he thought God fulfilled people's prayers, and was kind to them. When was the last time he had felt protective of his subjects, instead of merely looking down at them?

The nostalgia, and memories of the terror he held over the Skypieans, had him realize what he was sensing below. The same fear as the Skypieans held... but less shielded, deeper and more painful than what the angels had. The people in the city below lived in constant fear of judgement, but did not believe their god- or whoever it was they feared, in the Blue Sea they did not name their Governors God- could hear them. And the fear of judgement, which in Skypiea was lined with both hope and hopelessness, hope that they would be free of the world's troubles, and hopelessness in knowing that they could not go against the will of God, so why try, was not present below.

Their punishments were not fatal, were not instant.

Whoever was ruling over them, tortured their subjects.

Enel found he didn't care that much, beyond distaste. With a flick of his finger, lightning flashed over the mechanisms of the Maxim, turning away from the city filled with pain.

  _It is up to God to judge mortals, and not for mortals to judge themselves._

The people who ruled over the city, they thought themselves Gods. They, who were merely humans, in their arrogance sinned and punished their fellow humans. Enel wasn't a god. He knew that now. He had no right to judge them... But he had sinned the same way, for many years. Perhaps, it was time for him to begin his penance. And he would do it the only way he knew how. 

Those ruling the city... those with unspeakable filth emanating from their minds, polluting his Mantra... they had sinned, just as Enel had. He would let them face judgement, as he had at the hands of the rubber man... the future King of the Pirates. If God wanted them to live, to face penance, they would survive his bolts, just as the pirates and Shandians had back in Upper Yard. The rest would face God directly to face judgement.

And those who had lived in hardship under them would be free, he grinned. Perhaps he would be made King. He supposed his penance could take on the form of trying to be a kind God to a new set of subjects, to make up for being a merciless one to the last.

* * *

 

 The Holy Land of Mariejois was the home of thousands of people. The descendants of founding members of the World Government lived there as, well, greater than any mere kings. They were treated as living gods. Each had the title of Saint. Anything they wanted, would be given to them. Each family had more wealth than could be fully comprehended. They could kill and enslave and rape without consequences, treating all other humans as lesser creatures that existed for the sole sake of giving the Celestial Dragons what they wanted. They controlled the World Government, and stood at a dynasty of 800 years, they controlled the Marines, and thus the seas. 

They were untouchable. Only idiots and the insanely prideful even considered going against their will. 

It was a clear day, and Saint Charloss was enjoying the sun, holding the chains of a half-dozen women walking some distance behind him, carried by an expensively picked-out quarter-giant's back. 

A lightning bolt struck him, and he screamed, before dying within a second. He fell off the giant's back, smoking, and his hand released the chains of the girls. They weren't sure what to do. One of them hesitantly picked up her chains and rushed inside the nearby palace to summon a guard. 

* * *

 

Commander in Chief Kong had risen through the ranks based on the same factors that judged every other Marine; Strength, Devotion to the Marines, and Obediance to the Government. His haki was among the most heightened in the world. Including his Color of Observation. But it was not instinctive, not trained or something he was born with. It was something he could use, when he had to. But listening to the minds of Mariejois was painful, so he often did not. 

It was for this reason that he dropped his jaw to the floor as a panicking soldier rushed inside the room. "The World Nobles are all dead!"

" _ **WHAT**_?!" He roared, destroying his desk without thinking. 

"We've already contacted Admirals Akainu and Kizaru sir, as is protocol when one of the Nobles is attacked!" the marine reported. "But.. sir, they're all dead!"

"All of them?!" The Commander in Chief gripped his forehead, reaching out with the color of Observation, trying to find the one who dared throw the world into chaos. "Who did it?! Dragon?! Whitebeard?!"

"We don't know sir!"

He found it. " **I found him.** " He growled. The Voice that was laughing in sick glee as it released one bolt of lightning after another down at the city. "Report to the Gorosei!" He ordered. "Protect them, the World Government is in disarray!"

* * *

Enel zapped down to the city. His first act of Penance done. Well, he could kill a few more, there was no shortage of mildy evil Voices in his Mantra, but those that were Pure Evil had been judged. He landed in front of a group of slaves, the ones who had been chained by the last of the World Nobles to die. Glancing at their collars, he sparked a bit of electricity through their mechanisms, deactivating them. The chains fell with a clank, and the people in front of him stared at him, uncomprehending. "You are free." He said, joyously, tossing his arms up in the air. "I, Enel, former God of the sky, have freed you, your age of torment is over."

The former slaves all reacted differently. Some were simply dead inside from years of torture, touching their necks without understanding. Others broke down crying tears of joy, others collapsed into fear. Enel had expected worship, but he supposed he would have to wait a bit, for them to truly appreciate his noble deeds. Frowning, he zapped throughout Mariejois, the city was in absolute panic, screams of the Noble's being dead, once more with a mix of emotions, meant that he was actually mostly ignored among the rampaging riots and panics. He zapped from former slave to former slave, knocking out their collars at the speed of lightning. 

After that was done, not sensing any more within the city wearing a collar, he zapped to the top of a tall tower, conveniently sporting a brilliant golden lightning rod, watching with slight amusement as the city descended into madness. He dodged a punch from a man that had appeared next to him, that he had sensed jumping from roof to roof for some time.

It was followed by a kick, which he spun over. Two more punches, too fast for him to dodge. Smirking, he allowed them to phase through-

he was coughing up blood, being thrown through the air. That man had **hit** him! Was he made of rubber too?! It should have been impossible, no two devil fruits should exist at the same time. Sensing a mid-air tackle -boy this guy could jump- he zapped away, his lightning form shooting to the nearest rooftop, and with a kick he sliced the lightning rod off the roof, crackling energy through it and creating a solid gold staff. Within seconds the man was on top of him. He jabbed with his staff, making it burning-hot and sharpening the tip in an instant, but the man had already begun dodging. So he had Mantra as well. 

He sensed the intent to hit him with an open-palm strike, and began to zap out of the way, but the man moved too fast in close quarters. Too fast for Enel to physically dodge, and his touch made Enel solid, in the same way the rubber did. He turned to lightning and phased into the house, all the buildings in the city, as well as the foundations of the city itself, had iron and steel foundations, and gold and other metals decorating them. He could move anywhere he wanted as easily as he wanted. In an instant, moving at the speed of light, he was on the opposite end of Mariejois. The massive man was already in the process of chasing him. He was using Mantra, so he would be able to tell where Enel was heading. He would have to get out of the man's range... or stop him with something so fast and so big he couldn't avoid it. " ** _El Thor_**." The massive bolt of blue light gathered in front of his hand, the monster of a man in front of him immediately moved to dodge, to get out of range of the bolt. Enel smiled. 

Before launching it, he upped the voltage in an instant, and the massive beam doubled in width, colliding with the man at the speed of lightning. Not even Mantra let you move fast enough to outrace light. 

Grinning, he fired it again and again, each time the man recovered, and attempted to dodge, but he was still struck by the massive bolt of electricity. Honestly, Enel wasn't sure how the man had survived. When he did the same thing to the Pirate in Skypiea, it had passed through without harming him, but each time he hit, the man seemed to wince and, after the third, spit out some electrified blood. 

He had no idea what kind of powers this guy was using. 

Without warning, Enel's Mantra stopped telling him of the man's intent to attack, and sure enough, the man stopped charging, looking at an object on his wrist. 

He listened in.  _Admiral Kizaru will be there momentarily Commander in Chief!_

Reinforcements... Enel hated to admit it, but this man was troublingly strong. Enel hadn't eaten in nearly a month (like that would kill him) but it did hamper his abilities. He supposed he had done his first act of redeeming himself well enough; countless slaves, thousands and thousands of them, had been freed. But if they got caught again, it was their problem.

Deciding he had had enough of this, he began to speed away at the speed of lightning, zapping from one place to another. Within a few seconds he was far outside the walls of Mariejois, blasting along the Red Line. Stopping at an orchard, Enel paused to rest and eat some nearby fruit. He would have to head back soon enough, to recover and hide the Arc Maxim. But for the meantime, he decided, he could take a small nap. 

He had food in his stomach, and rich air in his lungs.

He wasn't a god. 

But he was still powerful enough to pass down judgement on those who had made the same mistakes as him. 

* * *

 

Kizaru arrived in a burst of yellow light, staring at the rioting going on in Mariejois. The city, being so high, was always foggy with low clouds passing through. But now the fog was choked with smoke as former slaves fought against the guards and soldiers seeking to recapture them, as former servants of the Celestial Dragons looted the palaces, as the government workers rioted from a lack of leadership. 

The eighteen Kings of the world were dead. As were most of their families. The Gorosei, as well as many of the children and the spouses of the World Nobles were spared. Those children too young to have entered society, as well as the dozens and dozens of wives and husbands that were basically slaves. The Gorosei had been deep underground at the time, attending to the "National Treasure" of Mariejois, so the World Government wasn't utterly without leadership.

Kong frowned deeply at the riots. "We've lost a big battle today."

"Do you know who did it?" Kizaru asked, his eyes disturbed and confused, but the rest of his face remaining a mask. 

"No damn idea. Most likely explanation is that a member of the Revolutionary Army got ahold of the Invincible Devil Fruit."

"Invincible?" Kizaru asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. 

"There are a few Devil Fruit known for their abilities being beyond the average. Of standing leagues beyond any others" Kong answered. "Whitebeard's is one of them, a paramecia strong as a logia. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit is known for making its user Invincible." He glanced at his Admiral and smirked, just a little bit. "He's a Lightning Man. I wonder how he'd stand against your powers. Light or Lightning?" Kong closed his eyes for a few seconds while he went back through the fight. "...He's a master of Observation Haki. He saw every one of my moves coming, even wild swings and feints, but he seemed surprised when I used Armament. I don't think he's ever fought someone capable of that type of Haki... so he's  probably not from the New World."

Kizaru let out a sigh. "We failed, today." he said slowly. "It was my duty, in particular, to come to the aid of the World Nobles whenever they were wronged... to let all of them die..." He turned around, beginning a salute. "Commander, I would like to hand in my resigna-"

"Don't be a fool!" Kong growled. "We need the Marines on high alert. This is unprecedented. The entire World Nobility, besides a few children and slave concubines, are gone. By good fortune alone we still have the Gorosei. If news of this gets out, the pirates, the revolutionaries, every nation at war with the World Government will try to turn against us. The Marines lifeblood is the tributes to the Celestial Dragons... we could have lost everything today. If we start giving up our greatest fighters, we won't be able to recover at all."

Kizaru saluted lazily once more. "Understood, my apologies."

Kong sighed, watching as Marines began to flood the streets, getting the Royal Guards, the slaves, and the servants under control. Mariejois was essentially the estates of 19 families, and a few government agencies, but it was as large as any other major city-state, with thousands of buildings, and thousands and thousands of people. The World Noble's employed an entire country's worth of people. Even if the employment was... dubious. He made his way back to his office building, giving orders to everyone he passed. Papers littered the floor, the dozens of secretaries and bureaucrats were panicking, and he had to regain control of the situation immediately. As he walked in, nearly every Den-Den Mushi in the room was beeping urgently. Picking up the Gorosei one first, he pinched his nose in an attempt to alleviate his growing headache. 

The five voices screaming in outrage at him weren't helping it. 

" _ **How did you allow this to happen- The costs to our reputation- seal it off immediately, don't let a single person from Mariejois out alive- the National Treasure, is it- Shut up!- did you kill the man who did it?- Was it Dragon**_ "

" **Sirs**!" Kong shouted, silencing the five most powerful people in the world. "My apologies, but we haven't gathered the proper information yet. And, may I remind you, that if I hadn't scared him off, you five would have been the next targets on his list."

"You dare-"

"Sirs, the culprit of the massacre was a young adult man, probably early thirties or mid twenties. Long earlobes, four drums attached to a ring embedded in his back. He possesses the powers of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Observation Haki at my level. The marines are currently investigating his identity. I fought him for a few minutes, upon receiving a report from one of my Marines of the massacre and finding him with my Haki. He did not speak, except to name his attacks."

They bickered among themselves. "Sirs, please call when you have further suggestions or orders. As you would guess, I have a lot of trouble going on because of this, and I have a world I need to keep in order."

"Kong!" One of the Gorosei growled, before he could hang up the snail. "This is not to become public knowledge. Activate all the Cipher Pols. The knoweldge that the Celestial Dragons are no more cannot be allowed to spread. Seal Mariejois, cut off all unnecessary communications. Do not let a single slave, soldier, servant, or marine stationed there outside of that city."

"What about Admiral Kizaru?"

"...Have him assist the marines already there. Have Akainu return to base, tell him and any men he intended to bring with him, to return to Marineford, and that he and anyone he told must keep the massacre of the Celestial Dragons a secret on pain of death. Begin transferring anyone who knows to Mariejois, to be held until we can get a hold of the situation."

"Understood sir, but Kizaru knows how to keep his mouth shut, and could be helpful, possibly the most helpful man available, to use in combatting the Rumble-Rumble Fruit."

"You have your orders, Commander."

And with that they hung up on him.

Sighing, he turned to the dozens of other beeping snails. Turning to one that was not beeping, he turned it on, and began sending out the orders from the Gorosei. It was time to seal Mariejois. 

* * *

 

Blinking awake and yawning, Enel took another fruit and zapped back toward the town he had liberated. Skirting it, so that the town would fall just inside the edge of his Mantra, he searched for the man he fought. Upon sensing him, Enel sighed and began zapping, one long stretch of land at a time, toward where he had left the Arc Maxim. Now, he decided, would be a good time to set up a base where he could let his vessel finally rest. 


	3. Chapter 3

Enel had spent years designing and constructing the Arc Maxim. He had first made the blueprints on Birka. He was the son of a shipwright, and he studied and showed skill in the family profession, until he was taken with the monastery and its way of life. He put every ounce of his creative ability into making his grand flying ship. When he first invented his goal of travelling to the moon, the ship that could carry him there was the first and chiefest priority. 

He had spent sleepless days going over the math and the mechanics, his followers harvested the greatest and most powerful dials, of every shape and size and type he deemed necessary. In the same way the tree used for the keel determined the shape and size of the ship, the size and shape of the dials in great part determined what the ship could do as well. Dials couldn't be mass-produced, they were harvested, each one different, as a different creature had each one. With each dial brought to him, followed a great deal of testing and re-crunching the numbers. With each new dial, the entire mechanism of the Arc Maxim would be re-designed. 

It was the work of a good portion of his life. In fact, one of the main reasons for conquering Skypiea in particular, rather than any other Sky Island, was because of the ruins of Shandora, the precious metal being necessary to conducting his powers. He oversaw every step of the process, even when not personally directing the manufacturing, he stayed keyed in with his Mantra. 

There were few things Enel truly loved in his life. The idea of God, power, the moon, and the Arc Maxim were all that he truly appreciated and valued deeply. 

He looked at the collapsed wooden behemoth, the massive golden face on its side, the outer walls of the ships had bent and broken, crushed on the inside from the weight of the inner mechanisms. Its propellers had come loose from their mechanisms, and pulled some of the innards of the ship out with them. The oars had snapped, the gears tumbled out of place. Zapping inside it, he looked sadly over his hard work and engineering falling to ruins. 

He stopped by the chemical vat that, when calibrated correctly, would release a mixture for an instant, massive, thunderhead. Deathpiea. For a few minutes, he stared at the vat. It was something he and his priests had carried from the ruins of Birka to Skypiea. He considered salvaging the machine. It was his greatest weapon, after all, capable of destroying an entire island in only a few minutes.

Raising a finger, he sent electricity charging through its metal pipes and glass, heating it and shaping it into an angry tangled mess. He no longer had any reason to destroy an entire island. Deathpiea would not be needed, ever again. 

* * *

 

The Arc Maxim had landed in a desert-like stretch of the Red Line, many miles from the city where he had freed the slaves, though perhaps not far enough. There was a good amount of activity there, that tickled his mantra with panic and confusion and fear. There were individuals outside it, with the clear intent in their minds on finding him. He would have to take care of the Arc Maxim quickly. Sending thousands of volts through the ship, the dials began to activate, the machinery creaking and screeching as it was forced into movement after having taken so much damage. Sitting in his throne for the last time, he guided the ship slowly back into the air, and then, forward, toward the edge of the Red Line.

The Arc Maxim had touched down at Fairy Vearth, and so, it would also touch the Abyss. The clouds drifted across the top of the continent like fog, and obscured his vision, but they were thin, substance-less clouds. He wished he could leave it on the White-White Sea, to float  in the heavens forever, but the ship wouldn't make it to a suitable Sky Island. 

This would have to do. He got up from his throne, disconnecting his power from the ship. He walked inside, listening to the Arc scream in pain as it wrenched itself apart from the inside. Following its corridors simply on foot, rather than in electrical form, he reached the Jet Dial room. Finding the perfect, largest, blue-white polished shell, the finest jet dial he had ever seen, and one he installed personally when first beginning construction. He quickly cut it free from the surrounding machinery, and attached it to his back for safe-keeping. Going through the mechanisms, he grabbed others that would be key, multiple Thunder Dials, Impact Dials, Heat and Breath Dials as well. He wouldn't have them on the Blue Seas.

He ran his fingers across the still-spinning series of golden clockwork, not caring when they were caught and ripped apart, as they simply reformed from lightning within an instant. Lighting his hand, he began to melt them down, creating ring after ring of gold and wrapping it onto his body, until he was nearly armored in gold. If he was making a life for himself of the Blue Sea, he wouldn't want to put all of it to waste. The gold would be valuable, and useful, besides its mechanical purpose. 

And with that, he had taken all he could carry comfortably. He came to the circuit that turned on the jet dials, and kept the Maxim floating when he was not charging it with his powers, and destroyed it with a hard bolt. 

He took a breath in surprise when the ship began falling in earnest, incredibly fast. The wind rushed against the wood outside like a solid force, ripping boards and mechanical pieces out of the ship and leaving them to fall as well. He listened to the silence of his ship, like it had taken its last breath, and was now holding it, bracing for impact with the Blue Sea below. He considered the thought he should perhaps turn to lightning, fuse with his ship once more, and fall to the Ocean with it. Drowning with it, going down with his greatest creation. 

A loose board suddenly hit him, and he let it carry him off the side of the ship, where he activated his powers and zapped upwards, running along the side of the Red Line. The Arc Maxim fell to the Blue Sea, becoming a shining golden speck before splashing into the water and sinking. 

He had the irrational thought that he should perhaps pray to God for the soul of his ship. 

He wiped away a tear and zapped to the top of the Red Line. Standing on the edge of the great cliff, he looked out into the Blue Sea stretched ahead of him. Reaching back and grabbing the Jet Dial, he began constructing a new ship for himself within his mind. One that would carry him over the Blue Sea, rather than away from it. 

Thinking back on the strange little craft the pirates that had shown him Judgement had arrived on, he smiled. 

* * *

 

The Gorosei were in an outrage, and had been in one for the last few hours. The Tenryuubito, had technically, not been a part of the World Government's chain of command. They were not part of any branch, did not make executive decisions. They were, however, political and economic forces that dictated much of what the World Government did. Each of the remaining eighteen Families individually had fortunes greater than any ten nations. The had the title of Saints, and were part of the moral system of "Justice" that the World Government stood for, no matter how blatantly unjust the Celestial Dragons were. They were a symbol; the combined might of twenty countries, that conquered the World, and in that unification, stood as "Justice" in an unfair world. 

Without the Celestia Dragons to manage their own families great wealths, the World Government would have to seize it directly, and manage it themselves. The economic fallout from such a huge sum being added into the equation could be dangerous for world affairs in and of itself. 

And now, of all things, as if only to make matters worse, one Nico Robin, on the run from the Government for the last twenty years, had finally been captured, and then subsequently freed by one Straw Hat Luffy. The Straw Hats had then declared war on the World Government, burned its flag, and turned on them in open defiance, destroying the CP9 and nearly all of Enies Lobby in the process. In the madness, a Buster Call had been unleashed on the Government's own island of Judgement. 

Straw Hat had also taken with him one who had once owned the blueprints to Pluton, and Robin, who had knowledge of the Ancient Weapons herself. 

A key part of what held the World together for the last 800 years had been destroyed today, and the Gorosei were worried that in the future, the Straw Hat might be able to do the same again. 

"Sir!" One of the many Den-Den Mushi announced, activating. "We've been investigating those who witnessed the deaths of the Celestial Dragons, one group of slaves spoke to the murderer directly!"

"Report." One of the Gorosei ordered. 

"The man is in his late twenties, blonde, wearing a white bandana. Pale skin, dark eyes, a thin nose, and long, extended earlobes. He was shirtless, and had a large ring embedded in his back, with four drums attached to it. He introduced himself as 'Enel, former god of the sky'."

"Any intentions?"

"He went on to say that he had freed the slaves from 'an age of torment'. It could be that his intention was to release the slaves held by the Celestial Dragons. As you know, every exploding slave-collar that was activated within the city was disabled."

"...Like Fisher Tiger then." One of the Gorosei growled. "...Well, this is enough information for a wanted poster at the very least." 

The Gorosei debated for a few minutes, before going to one of the snails. "Two new bounties are to be posted: an update for the Pirate Monkey D. "Straw Hat" Luffy, previously one hundred million Beri, to three-hundred million Beri. And secondly, a new Poster for a 'Sky God Enel' for five-hundred million Beri."

The man on the other side of the line seemed to hesitate, one didn't ask "are you sure?" to the Gorosei. "Understood, sir!" He said instead, and got to work. 


	4. Chapter 4

The crew was filled with mixed emotions as they went through the newest collection of bounties. Luffy smiled widely at the Three-hundred million printed beneath his picture. Even Franky and Sniper-King had bounties of their own as well. It was for that reason, actually, that the Franky Family had brought the newest collection of bounties to them to see.

As they sifted through the papers, some celebrating, some complimenting, some mourning, Robin paused and picked up one poster, one that, like Sanji, had a drawing, although one closer to real life than whatever confused soul they got to draw a picture of Sanji. 

"Huh, it seems Enel's made a name for himself as well."

"Whaat?!" Nami shouted. "That bastard's alive and- Five hundred million?!"

Everyone turned at the mention of the absurdly high bounty, and stared at the poster. Robin shrugged. "His powers were quite the handful, really, it was good luck that Luffy was his weakness, or we likely would have died." She said with a smile. 

"Hey, do you think my bounty would get even higher than his if they found out we beat him?" Luffy asked, giggling, Nami hit him on the head in response. 

"You want it to be even higher?! How many bounty hunters do you want to deal with a week!"

The fact that Enel was on the Blue Sea was more or less ignored after that, something noteworthy, but irrelevant. Enel was behind them now. They didn't really care about him, as long as he wasn't trying to kill them or anyone they liked at the moment.

In other places in the world, it was not so easily forgotten.

* * *

 

Urouge stared in absolute horror. He was a man known for always wearing a smile on his face, always. He could see the bright side of any situation he was thrown into, it was very few times that his crew had seen him show a frown, let alone the look of despair that was flowing across his face.

"High... High Priest?" One of them said, putting their hand on his back in support. "What's wrong?"

"This bounty..." He whispered, the sounds of lightning and screaming and an echoing, all-present 'Yahahahaha' rumbled inside his mind. "This monster... he's found his way to the Blue Sea?"

Not too many of the Fallen Monk Pirates were Sky Islanders, and of them, fewer were survivors of Birka like himself. "Do you know him?" She asked. 

"Of course we know him! This is the... the demon, who destroyed our homeland!" One of the other survivors of Birka announced. "He's the reason we were cast down onto the ocean!"

"Five hundred million..." Urouge whispered. The only time his smile disappeared was when he heard the sound of thunder. "...They're underestimating him. Enel is untouchable. Me, a fifth as dangerous as the Sky God Enel? HA!" He roared. "My crew! Listen to me, if I am going to become the Pirate King, then this is the man who will be our greatest challenge! Recognize his face, this man, this man is the one that we will kill! Somehow, we will!" 

His crew roared in agreement, glad to see a savage smile once again on their captain's face. 

* * *

 

 "What's this?" Dragon asked, flipping through the papers. 

"Ah, two new big-hitters have appeared at once." Pointing toward the picture of Luffy. "The first, is Straw Hat Luffy, he defeated Crocodile in Alabasta, and then was involved in a second incident at Enies Lobby. They've grown into a powerful group, with a total bounty of six-hundred sixty-seven million and fifty Beri." The leader of the revolutionaries gripped the paper in his hand, before turning for the door. 

"I'm going to get some air." He announced. 

"Ah, and this second one, this is his first bounty, at five-hundred million. 'Sky God Enel'." Dragon paused in his walk to the door.

"His first? And already this high?"

"Yes, the newspaper listed the reason fairly vaguely, almost as an afterthought to Straw Hat, he apparently lead an unsuccessful attack on Mariejoa through a 'Classified' channel that has lead to the Marines following a new program to protect the Celestial Dragons. He is compared to Fisher Tiger, which is as close as the newspapers will come to admitting that he attacked in order to free the slaves in Mariejoa. He escaped, and so the Marines are after him."

"Hm... he'd likely be an ally to our cause, then." Dragon said simply. "Put effort into locating him. Alert our agents near Sabaody to be on the lookout for him. Now, I really do need a bit of air." Clutching the poster of Straw Hat Luffy, he walked outside, smiling.

* * *

 Teech smiled, raising an impressed eyebrow. "So, Straw Hat's gotten an even more impressive bounty!" His eyes gliding to the other, smaller picture near the bottom of the paper, he grinned wider. "And we've got options, a lucky rookie managed to make the government _very mad_ at him."

"So what are we going to do boss?"

"With our buddy Ace here, our acceptance into the Seven Warlords of the Sea will be guaranteed." He said, shrugging. "There's no need to pad our reputations any more at this point in time."

* * *

 Enel zapped along the cliffside, jumping from place to place, following lines of especially-conductive minerals in the rock itself. Most things carried a usable amount of conductivity, which made long-distance travel for Enel almost anywhere fairly easy. Occasionally surfacing to get a lock on his environment, he stopped when he reached a suitably large forest. Grinning, he rose from the ground and walked from tree to tree. It was disappointing, after looking upon the great jungles of Upper Yard, but it would have to do. Phasing his hand into the bark, he traveled up and down its length in electrical form, getting a read on it. Jumping from tree to tree, he settled on a large one near the center. Morphing some of his gold into a large ax, he began work on it. It was unfortunate, that, useful as it was, gold was still a soft metal, so progress was slow-going. 

His new ship was really a temporary measure, but his pride refused him from sailing on anything less than beautiful. It would be a simple Dial-boat, something most likely unheard of in the Blue Sea. A small yacht, with enough room for some decent storage and some stretching room, but really only made to carry one person in comfort, and not a lot of cargo. When he decided on his purpose in the Blue Sea, he would build another ship more suited to the task, and reclaim the dials from this one, but until then, this ship would be his home. 

It took a while to cut down the tree, and hours to clean it. Even with his great strength and powers, carpentry was a slow and careful process, and he really didn't have the tools. He didn't even have a hammer or nails. He refused to waste so much of his remaining gold on something like this as well. Sighing, he marked the place in his memory and began zapping across the landscape looking for a town. 

Sighting one after only a few minutes of searching, he dumped most of his gold in a small hole. It wouldn't do to make much of a fuss. Leaving only a few gold bracelets to trade for whatever he needed, he zapped towards the town, appearing in the market place behind a building, so as to not grab too much attention. His appearance was strange enough that he got it anyway. But no one bothered him beside a few glares and confused looks. His Mantra would warn him of any attack that would come for him anyway. 

Going through the marketplace, he stopped and purchased a large bag with a fragment of one of the bracelets, and then stopped at a carpentry shop. Breathing in the familiar smells of wood and iron, he was hit by a rush of nostalgia for his childhood. Pushing it back down, he entered the shop and began to look at the tools, testing them in his hands. 

"You have a good eye." The shopkeeper announced, as Enel weighed a particular hammer in his hands. "That one's been selling quick, what do you need it for?"

"I'm building a boat." He said.

The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Where are you from?"

"An island called Birka." Enel replied. "I'll be making a large order. I shall have to make several trips, may I pay in advance?" He pulled one of the bracelets from his wrist and with a subtle crackle of electricity, broke it in half.

"Oh!" The shopkeeper's eyes lit up with the shine of the gold. "Of course!"

* * *

 

He made several return stops at the small town, exchanging a few more pounds of his gold for "Beri"s, and getting everything he would need, from food to clothes to nails. It took him only a few days to finish his boat, sleeping on the grass or in the tree branches. 

Attaching the dial mechanism, he smiled with a small sense of pride at his work. There was something to say about making something with your own two hands. It was a yacht about thirty feet long and was bare-bones, made to be practical but comfortable. There were two floors; the deck and the cabin, and the engine/storage room below it. The 'engine' was really only a simple series of dials, the jet dial being the core component, and what would propel the ship. No need for sails when one had dial technology, after all. It would be steered by a gold rod attached to the front of the craft, which, when pushed, would turn two rotating breath dials to change direction, and was also connected to a thunder dial. The thunder dial, depending on the charge he sent into it through the gold, would adjust the amount of push coming from any of the breath dials, as well as activating or deactivating the jet dial. 

And, the most fun of all, he had purchased sail-quality cloth in large amounts from the shop. Near the center of a continent, the town didn't have any sails in stock, but with a little gold tossed their way, they made one quite quickly and well. Attaching it to the rear of his ship, it hung on top of the cabin, tied down rather loosely to the sides, but kept from dragging onto the ground by a clip attached to a gold circuit on the roof of the cabin. 

When needed, he could turn the jet dial upwards from the ocean and facing toward the sail on top of the cabin, and when he activated it, it would push air into the sail, creating a balloon that would rise continuously upwards and forward, and could be steered by the breath dials the same as if it were on the sea. By turning the jet on and off, he could control the altitude. 

He had painstakingly dragged a couch from the small town to his little base in the forest, and installed it within the living room of his yacht. He would not, under any circumstances, be without somewhere comfortable to sit. If a ship did not have a throne, it was not one that Enel would be riding on. 

It was a masterpiece, he decided. Unfinished, but with some polish and some quality free-time, he could make it a jewel. 

"I name you... the Arc Raiden." He nodded, and got on board. Gripping the gold pole, he charged it with his power, and the dials inside came to life, adjusting the power, he turned the jet dial upwards, facing into the sail. Sending a charge and activating the jet, the sail instantly expanded to its full size as the compressed air blasted against it, lifting it high into the air in a sudden rush. Enel lost his footing immediately, and growled as he got back up and placed his hand back against the pole, directing his handmade airship over the forest, past the village, and back towards where he had first touched down. His mantra would tell him when he got close to the place where the slaves had suffered and he fought that monstrous man who had the ability to hit him. 

From there, he would drop to the sea, and sail away from the cliff side. He would find his purpose while wandering the seas, or he would simply roam from island to island doing good deeds. He had a monstrous amount of karma weighing on him, he knew. Saving those slaves, killing those prideful men with evil-sounding hearts, he was sure that act earned him quite a bit of good karma, but there was no way it outweighed the destruction of Birka or the torment of Skypiea. 

Likely, unless he himself saved two islands from destruction, he wouldn't feel like he had been redeemed. And he didn't think God would find threatening two islands with destruction, and then sparing both of them, would count. So he had to do things the hard way, the slow way. 

The ground beneath him disappeared suddenly, and he saw the Blue Sea below him once more. Hearing the hearts of the former slaves, he noted that they sounded happier, overall, but they were still feeling trapped. They had no collars, but they were in a new kind of imprisonment. Considering it for a few seconds, he wondered if saving the same group of people twice still earned him new good karma. 

Well, it didn't hurt, at the very least. Turning his yacht, he spun back at Mariejoa, approaching it from above.

* * *

 

Kong had kept his Color of Observation going for just this occasion. Enel had succeeded in assassinating the Celestial Dragons, but had not freed the slaves as he intended. This meant that his work was not finished. Kong and Kizaru had been waiting for him to return, and it seemed the moment was upon them. "Go. You're still within Mariejoa's borders, don't hesitate in going all out."

Kizaru gave a lazy salute, shifting his sunglasses before firing straight upwards, following his observation haki, locked onto the one heart above the city. "Yo~." He said, re-materializing from light next to Enel. 

Enel raised a bored eyebrow, and pointed at him. The lightning bolt coursed from his finger, and Kizaru, already falling, shot in a straight line away from the bolt.

Sensing Kizaru's intent, he changed the direction of the bolt to meet with Kizaru as he reformed. The lightning shot through him in a wave, blasting him to bits of golden light. But within seconds, Kizaru had reformed. "Whoo~ that was hot! I really felt that, you know?"

Enel shrugged, and silently fired off an El Thor, engulfing the admiral before he could turn into a beam and blast away, but Kizaru reformed all the same. A fellow Logia then...

Kizaru, without thinking much of it, acting as spontaenously as possible, fired a spread of yellow laser beams through Enel. The former god considered dodging as soon as he felt the intent behind the blows, but decided to take one, to see if it would affect him. Making sure it got him in the side, away from anything useful, he smiled as the beam cut a clean hole through him, which reformed in an instant.

"Seems we're evenly matched." Enel said, jumping from the Arc Raiden and letting it continue on its way up. As soon as the thunder dials lost their charge, they would turn off the breath dials, and the small ship would drift slowly back toward the ground. Joining Kizaru in free-falling back toward Mariejoa. Zapping through the air towards him, he sensed the admiral turning into a beam and firing away from him, arcing to follow him through the air in lightning form. Enel was shocked at how fast the admiral could move, utterly outpacing Enel... but only in straight lines. 

Stopping and turning around, the admiral fired off another volley of laser beams, before turning into a beam himself and blasting Enel into pieces, which reformed instantly back into white-blue lightning. 

Yellow and blue light bounced off of each other as they turned into their elements almost entirely, blasting through each other in beams, bursts, bolts, and tackles. Neither was doing much damage to the other, and whenever Kizaru tried to use his own armament haki to get a grip on the former god, Enel simply backed away, following his Mantra's advice, and avoiding any of the attacks that he learned could hurt him. 

Soon enough, they came close to the city, and Enel grinned, zapping into the foundations. Kizaru would never be able to find him, in lightning form, spreading along the many, many paths of conducting metal or material that lined the framework of everything in the city. But Kong could. 

The Commander in Chief of the Marines was on Enel in an instant, smashing the ground in front of him and breaking the pipe Enel was following. Enel simply turned and followed an alternate path, but the Chief's observation haki followed him no matter how many turns and re-directions Enel took. 

Surfacing, he zapped himself to a nearby lightning rod, Kong followed, jumping from where the Commander was on the street to meet Enel head-on. Smiling wildly, Enel swung his staff, transforming it into a trident mid-swing, and it met Kong's face with a sharp crack. The Chief had been expecting a blow, through his own haki, and raised his fist to deflect it, but widened his eyes as the boiling-hot blade sunk into his flesh, rather than a blunt pole bouncing off of him. 

Jumping back and gripping the steaming wound, he glared as Enel zapped back into the lightning rod, following it down the house's foundations and along a pipe nearly a mile away. Kizaru arrived in beam-form a second later, groaning to himself. "This bastard's pretty fast." He commented.

"Too fast. We need to trap him somehow, but-"

"-his haki is too good. We'd never be able to trap him." Kizaru finished. "All we can do is drive him out. What about the Gorosei?"

"As soon as I sensed him, they entered their bunker."

The people on the street were panicking as the flashy and explosive fight that criss-crossed the entire city continued. In the chaos, Enel rose from the ground, standing at the edge of Kong's area of observation. Pointing his finger forward, he smiled. " **El** **Thor**." The massive bolt of electricity crossed the air in an instant, colliding with both Kizaru and Kong. Zapping himself into the foundations once more, he raced to another end of the city, outside of the range of their haki, frowning. It was a stalemate.

His attacks didn't harm them, their attacks _could_ harm him, but couldn't hit him. And so, there was nothing more to do in the city, he decided. Not until he was... strong enough, to beat those two. 

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, he cracked an evil smile. He had never before thought that he wasn't strong enough. But both of them had used that strange power that made their bodies able to hit Enel as if they were rubber. That meant it wasn't a Devil Fruit power...

It was a power Enel didn't have, one that he himself was weak to. 

It was a good place to start, he supposed. Rising from the ground, he fired himself away from the city. He couldn't free them, for now. He simply wasn't strong enough to resist Kong and Kizaru at the moment. Arching through the sky in a grand blue thunderbolt, he landed on the Raiden, looking back at the form of Mariejoa. Still above the city, he roared, amplifying his voice with the strength of the Rumble-Rumble fruit. "I, THE FORMER GOD ENEL, WILL RETURN TO FREE YOU!" He liked the city, it was ornate, beautiful, and stood in the clouds, while also being a part of the land. Every part of it was interconnected by gold leaf and intricate steel lines and pipes underground. He decided, someday, he would take that city for himself, and earn back some of his karma by freeing the people there. All he needed was the ability to get Kong and Kizaru away from it. 

Sailing away from the city, he lowered the Raiden through the air towards the Blue Sea once more. 

Spying in the far distance something just above the ocean, he grinned. 

Within an hour, his ship touched the waters, and Enel nearly fell off as it swayed up and down with the currents. The Blue Sea didn't act like the White Sea, that was for sure. But he would get used to it. 

He activated the jet dial, and sped across the waters, aiming for a strange archipelago of massive trees. 


	5. Chapter 5

Honestly, the bubbles were redundant. He couldn't fly for very long distances, sure, but he could jump so far, so high, for so long, in lightning form that it was essentially the same. If he had something solid beneath him at least. His Raiden was a stronger vessel, it would take a hit better, could move faster, go higher. He didn't need a slow-moving, fragile bubble car. It was redundant, it was something, that literally, only served to slow him down.

He bought three. 

"Yahahahaha!" He laughed, pedalling up higher and higher until the bubble popped, leaving him falling back down with the Bon Chair. Zapping quickly to another bubble, he placed the saddle back down and repeated the process. It was childish, sure, but it was a unique experience. 

Deciding to keep his good karma rolling, he arrived at one of the many Human Shops as soon as he sensed what kind of people were inside. He swaggered inside, glancing at the glass tanks keeping people locked inside, he frowned. His Mantra told him their thoughts, and emotions. Honestly, it didn't really bother him. When he was a small child, he felt pain whenever someone else did, on the island. When someone got knocked out or died, and he heard a sudden quiet where there used to be a sound, it always scared him, whenever someone mourned or felt despair, he used to shiver.

But he got used to it. It was background radiation now- no, not exactly. Like being in a field of millions of unique flowers. He saw all of them, but really could only acknowledge or notice one of them if he took a moment to look at it especially. From the moment he came in range of the Yarukiman mangrove, their voices were in his mind. Telling him their deepest secrets. But it was only now, that he was considering freeing these people in particular, did he actually process what they thought. 

"Ah, hello sir!" The man was flattering him, intentionally trying to make Enel feel superior. The salesman's thoughts were utterly focused, however, on Enel's jewelry and on his golden staff. The majority of his gold was hidden, along with his small ship, in the under-root shadows of the groves the larger ships didn't reach. The only way to get to it, would be to swim, or if you could just phase through the wood itself and come out the other side. But all the same, he was dressed ornately, with dozens and dozens of golden bracelets and arm rings and necklaces. "What you see here is our entire selection, we've recently had the good fortune to run into a mermaid!"

"Hello boy~" _Oh god I can't swim, I'm exhaused,please, please someone buy me quick!_

"How strange, a man with a fish tail." He commented, raising an eyebrow. His eyes slid from tank to tank, taking in each person there. His eyes stopped on the salesman. "I must say, I've understood the concept of owning people before, but buying and selling them is something that's never happened on my island. Are there any other people with strange features like this one with the tail?"

"Er, we have an eighth giant on the second floor, but otherwise, only humans. The Human Auction House has the largest selection though! You'll find 'people' with tails, fins, long arms, long legs, giants, dwarves, Devil Fruit Users and people with wings-"

"Did you say 'wings'?"

"Ah, yes, sometimes they're called angels-" he stopped, as thousands of volts of electricity were passing through him. The corpse fell to the ground, smoke leaving every pore on his body. 

The slaves began making a ruckas, shocked. Several of the other men working there pulled out weapons, charging at him. Enel didn't bother judging them. They were hired help, cruel, apathetic, but not the Evil of the main salesman, who looked at the buying and selling of people, and saw a chance for prestige in the business. They didn't sin as Enel did, like the slave-seller did. So he let them be. Best not to get any negative karma. Their swords and bullets passed through him harmlessly. 

"Logia eh?" One of them growled, before grinning. "How do you like-" Reaching behind his back, he whipped the cuffs around, the blue-green steel glinting in the light as it came down towards where Enel used to be a second ago "-this?!"

"Sea Stone, hm." Swinging his staff, he knocked the man unconscious, and then did the same to the other four. Walking up to the nearest tank, he smiled. "Back away from the walls, if you don't want to get burned."

The slave woman nodded, and stood in the center, watching as Enel pressed his hand against the glass. The hand started glowing bright blue-white, and making a slow circle, he melted out an opening large enough for her. "You might want to wait until it cools before trying to climb out-" he sighed as she simply jumped through. Without a word, he sent a shock to her collar, and it fell, the mechanisms inside it frying and preventing it from exploding. Faster this time, he did so for every tank, before stopping at the 'mermaid'. "Hm... If I melt the glass, the shock will pass through the water."

"Let me do it." The eighth-giant said. And promptly smashed his fist into the glass, creating a hole big enough for the man to scramble out of, panting, and ripping off the fake mermaid tail. "...What's your name?"

"Enel. I'm in the process of judging every impudent mortal who believes they have the right to stand as gods above their fellow mortals." He said proudly. "Please don't get caught again, or do, I don't care." Turning around and walking away, he gave a small wave. 

"Wait!" One of them, with spiky hair shouted. "You freed us, we, we're in your debt!"

"No you're not. I'm paying off my own moral debt right now." He said, waving them off. "I don't need to hold anyone else's account right now."

"No! Please, anything, there's some way we can pay you back!"

Enel sighed. "Don't get caught again." He ordered. "That'll help me enough." Without letting them get another word in edgewise, he zapped away, leaving the men and women to stand in the shop, mouths gaping, free.

* * *

 

There were a ridiculous number of slave shops and slave owners in the archipelago. He followed his Mantra haphazardly from place to place on the groves, the traveling between them quite easy, due to the conductivity of the trees. He zapped collars everywhere he went, often without even staying long enough to be picked up by the average human eye. If the owner of one of them was Evil, he zapped them too. 

Laughing wildly, he jumped from tree to tree, releasing his Divine Judgement upon one Evil person one after another. It felt good, to be a God again. So many lives in his hands again, and this time, he _knew_ that he was doing the right thing. Grinning evilly, he stood above one such man, "My name is Enel." He said, "you have sinned against your fellow humans in your cruelty, and against God in your arrogance. Face Judgement." He pressed his staff to the man's throat, and he began increasing the heat. 

The man screamed. "Mercy! Please, mercy!"

Enel stopped. He blinked. He sighed, pinching his nose. Damn it. He had gotten carried away. That might add even _more_ weight to his bad karma! Even if he was only judging evil people, he was relishing his superiority, enjoying being their better. He loved the looks of despair on their faces as they saw the force of nature coming towards them and they prayed for forgiveness.

In all fairness, godhood is highly addictive. 

"Fine. If you ever buy or sell another slave again, however, I am likely to come after you."

"I promise!" The man screamed, sobbing. "Never again!"

"Good. Go on, get. I'm going to free all your slaves now. And probably... hm. May I ask your opinion? What's a good term in mercy? Do I have to ask every single one to repent, or should I just do one in fifty? One in ten?"

The man stared at him, uncomprehending. "Your Evil coworkers, your fellow arrogant monsters. How many should I spare?"

"I-I don't care!" 

"Hm. Evil, all the same. Even after my mercy." He pressed the staff to his throat once more, taking pleasure in the wince of fear on the slavekeeper's face. "But I don't go back on my word."

He released him, and turned to lightning, zapping around and freeing the three dozen or so slaves in the building. Before appearing before the other five Evil men. "I am Enel, I am here to Judge you." He said, introducing himself. "But, I have recently come to understand that I must learn mercy. So, how many of you will give up your Evil ways, and never buy or sell a slave again?"

"What, are you stupid or something?" He pulled a gun, and shot Enel through the forehead. Enel didn't even bother dodging. He zapped the man. "Well?" Two more pulled out their own guns, shooting at him madly, while another ran for it. The other man just blinked, before putting his hands up and surrendering.

"So, are you a revolutionary agent or something? Or just a madman? We're not a very big chain, if you really want to deal with this head on, you should try the Human Auctioning House."

Enel zapped the two men firing at him, and he gave an evaluating look at the last remaining slavekeeper. "Well, will you give up your Evil ways?"

"Sure, sure. If the other option is death."

"...No, I'll not kill you. Unconditionally. Now then, will you go back to your Evil ways?"

He thought about it. "No. I'm finished here, I'm going to get out of Sabaody and try something else."

"Hm. Alright, two out of every five." And with that, he returned to his rampage, occasionally appearing before his targets and making them beg for mercy, and then granting it. 

* * *

 

Within two hours, he had wiped out about 5/6ths of the slavery institution in Sabaody, saving the biggest, the Auction House, for last. And it was at this point he had started gathering attention. 

"That's the rookie! Sky God Enel!" A Marine shouted, firing. Enel didn't notice the shot, too distracted by the number of people who recognized him. Hundreds of people, bounty hunters, marines, and pirates hoping to take on a rookie with a fake bounty, started gathering. He tended not to be immediately recognized, as the Marines didn't have accurate artists, but every so often, someone did. And then there would be calls to anyone interested in taking on the mysterious "twelfth Supernova". 

Everywhere he went, now, people were on the lookout, and would start the attack. It was getting more difficult to continue his task at this rate. 

Flowing up the branches of the great mangrove trees in electric form, he reformed in one of the tallest branches. Closing his eyes, he counted with his Mantra. The population was dozens of times larger than Birka's and Skypiea's together. Sifting through them, and all the voices so varied, so emotional and interconnected, and unfamiliar... it would take longer than he was used to. In a way, he knew every soul on Skypiea with passing familiarity. But here, in Sabaody, the people were a maelstrom. 

He planned what he wanted to do. He wanted to free every slave on the island, as he seemed to be on a role. He enjoyed the worship from those he rescued, and delivering judgement, feelings like he was doing the will of God, rather than be God himself. 

He also wanted to get stronger, learn the ability that those two men in that beautiful golden city on the Red Line used. They were both masters of Mantra, not nearly at Enel’s level, but perhaps exceeding that of his former Priests, but those other powers they had… the ones that allowed them to hit even an invincible Logia like himself. He wanted those.

He closed his eyes, and searched for the strongest people. Ones who had the same type of sound as the two who had fought him.

It was, fate, perhaps. Or merely convenience. He landed along the same spot he had left from, on the globe, thus, the Grand Line, but the Earth spun, and so he aimed for the Red Line. The Red Line, which the Pirates were already close to, where they had to go if they wanted to enter Fishman Island and the New World.

But as he closed his eyes, a small ship, carrying a crew of eight plus three.

He recognized six of them.

A shiver went up his spine, his eyes bulged, and he let out a shriek. "Of all the contrived-" he began, growling, before stopping and glancing upward. This... this was obviously an act of god. It had to do with his karmic punishment. God had sent the Straw Hat to punish Enel for his pride. The Straw Hat, unwittingly or not, the idiot, was a tool of God's judgement. He sifted through the voices of Sabaody, and noted a few other people of similar, and greater strength. Something big was happening on the archipelago, today. Only now that he was listening for it could he hear the tension in the air. And that meant he was in the right place. He would keep track of the other powerful people, of the Straw Hats, of-

He blinked in surprise as he listened to the heart of a Birkan Sky Islander, among of the strongest two or three-dozen people on the archipelago. Urouge. A monk. 

Truly, God had given him a strange situation. 

* * *

 

Urouge grinned, as he did perpetually, and smashed down his club, trying to break open that infuriating man's mask. Killer dodged back, spinning his sickles and attempting to get a clear shot at Urouge's face. They both lunged to go forward with what they each thought would be their own finishing blow to the other, when both of their weapons were stopped by another man.

Drake frowned, glaring at both in turn. "If you want to do this, wait until you reach the New World." He growled. 

"You're that disgraced Marine officer, Drake, right? _Ufufufu_." He smiled genuinely, as he did perpetually, at Killer. "Your life is spared for today, masked man."

Drake began stepping away, as yet another of the Eleven Supernovas waved to him. "That was pretty good just now." Law stated. "But how many have you killed?"

Enel dropped down in a strike of electricity, smiling pridefully, standing in the center of the four of them. "Not as many as me." He stated, and turned to look Urouge in the eye. 

The Giant Sky Islander shook in fury, his crew gathering around him, pulling out their weapons. Drake sighed. "Even the new guy, huh?" He jerked his sword in Enel's direction. "Look, we can save all our grudges for the New World. The Navy's been acting strange, and if one of us makes a big enough incident, it'll bring down their boot on _all_ of us."

 Urouge's smile had disappeared. " _You._ _**You**_!"He roared. "I'll make you pay for the innocents of Birka!!" He smashed down his club, Drake dodging in to block it once more, but he found himself being attacked by Enel's staff.

"Stay out of it, please. This is between angels." Enel suggested. "And I'm afraid I've already made quite a few incidents since arriving here! _Yahahaha_."

Drake sighed, narrowing his eyes. Law and Killer got up as well, surrounding them. Killer laughed for a second, "just let them duke it out, if you get involved, it'll just become a bigger brawl."

Law smiled. "Give it up. The best we can do is stay away from each other, or it'll just bring the Marines faster. And, if we all stay in the same place, we'll just end up trying to kill each other."

The two Supernovae continued on their ways, leaving Drake to bristle and stare at the giant repeatedly smashing the place where Enel stood, the Logia simply allowing the club to pass through him. Drake shook his head, and started running. Enel had the highest of the bounties, and Urouge was known for being unstable, not nearly as unstable as Kidd or Straw Hat, but unstable all the same. He didn't want to get involved. 

Enel shook his head sadly. "I'm glad to see you, fellow Birkan."

"You're not a Birkan!! You made it so that there is no Birka!" He roared. "The Temple!" He smashed Enel. "My family!" He smashed Enel. "My Comrades!" He smashed Enel. "My Homeland!" He smashed Enel. "All erased! All of them, crashing to the Blue Sea! If I didn't have my powers... you'd have killed me too! You monster, you demon of a God!"

"I apologize." Enel said, politely, giving a bow. Urouge screamed in rage, and Enel took a step back, the blow from the club shattering the root underneath them.

"I don't want your apologies! I want you to die!" His crew joined him now, firing bullets and swinging blades. All of it useless, against the Logia. Some snuck up with their few Seastone weapons, but those Enel simply could dodge with his Mantra. 

"I was very nearly killed." Enel said, "I was deposed from my position as God of Skypiea. That man beat me, to an inch of my life. He didn't mean to spare me, that was simply the will of God, judging me and deciding I had yet more work to do on this Earth."

"YOU WON'T KILL ANYONE ELSE!" 

"Yes, I will." Enel said simply, letting the massive club pass through him. "But this time, I will only kill the right people. No more slaying innocents, no more judging for myself the hearts of others." He spread his arms in a placating gesture. "From now on, I will only kill those who's hearts are as evil as mine."

"YOU'RE THE MOST EVIL THING IN THE WORLD!" Urouge screamed. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE, YOU'RE JUST A MURDERER!" Enel sighed, jumping away from the group of pirates. 

"True. But there are others with sins just as great as my own, with minds just as full of arrogance. I've been killing them all day. I'm actually almost done." He said, grinning. "If you wish to see my great work, go to the Human Auctioning House at 4:00. You're one of those who survived my great sin, and I'm grateful you exist." He gave a bow to Urouge. "Though, I doubt you'll be merciful enough to ever forgive me, even if I prove to you that I'm trying to make up for all my bad karma."

"You want to see bad Karma?" Urouge growled. "Attack me!" He ordered to his crew, and they did so. With each blow, he grew in size, until he stood far, far above Enel. "Take this! **Karma Exposure**!" His giant fist shot at Enel, and shattered the ground around him. The impact blasted Enel to pieces, but he reformed again in an instant, falling to the bottom of the crater. 

"...I apologize for Birka." He said simply. "I truly do regret it. I'm damned, because of it. I almost wiped out Skypiea as well, before that Straw Hat was sent by God to beat the hell out of me. But rest assured, monk, I'll make up for it, some how. God must have spared me for a reason after all. That, or become strong enough to Judge me for yourself."

"Enel." He growled. But the former God had already zapped away. He turned to his crew. "Get to the Human Auctioning House! We'll ambush him there."

* * *

 

"Camie's been kidnapped!" Chopper screamed along the line. 

They rushed to find her, the crew joining the Flying Fish Raiders in scouting out every slave-holder in the archipelago to find her, but only finding discarded collars and broken cages wherever they went. They were beginning to get scared, and the Flying Fish Raiders were collecting horror stories from other kidnapping groups and their buyers. "Why would Enel be breaking slaves out of every human shop in Sabaody?" Robin asked. 

Nami shivered, grabbing her shoulders. "God damn it, why do we have to fight a strong guy like this right now? Can't we stop at a place once, and have it not turn into some huge death trap?"

Robin smiled. "We're pirates. We're asking for it... but still, his actions seem strange. Why would Enel care?"

"Do you think he's looking for one specific person, like we are?" The navigator asked. 

Robin shrugged. "Perhaps..."

* * *

 

The Law Pirates and the Kidd Pirates had arrived in time for the start of the auction, and Law gave a nod to Urouge and his gang, standing at attention near the rear of the auctioning hall. 

Soon enough, most of the Straw Hat Crew appeared as well. Urouge got up, walking over to them. At the giant's approach, Sanji and Franky stood up, ready for a fight. "Sit back down you idiots!" Nami hissed. "If we make too much of a scene, we won't be able to get Camie back!"

Sanji's eyes widened and he shot down to his seat. "Camie!!!" He mourned, before regaining his composure and looking angry. 

Urouge looked down at him. "Black Leg Sanji... the fourth highest bounty in the crew, right? Are you in charge here?"

Nami sighed, "He's our cook, actually. I'm in charge here."

"Hm. Was it you who took down Enel in Skypiea?" Nami narrowed her eyes.

"Who's asking?"

"One of Enel's victims." He stated. "Or rather, one of his survivors."

Nami frowned. "Sky Island seems like such a long time ago now... but yeah, it was our Captain who did it, really. None of the rest of us could touch him, literally." She hit her fist to her palm in realization. "Ah! That's right, he lived. We thought he fell off the island, or maybe went to the moon in his weird flying ship, but I guess he made it down to the ocean." She put her hands up in a placating gesture. "Sorry! After Luffy knocked him out, we had to get away quickly."

"..." Urouge was silent for a few seconds, seemingly considering her words. "But... you freed Skypiea?"

"Yeah. Though we stole a lot of gold from them right after, so we couldn't celebrate for long." She said slyly. 

"That doesn't matter, if you left them with their lives, and stopped Enel..." He dropped to the ground, pressing his forehead to the floor in front of them. Franky and Chopper shared a nervous look while the others looked more surprised than anything else. "I am eternally grateful. Right now, Enel is on the island."

"Luffy will have to deal with him again then." Nami said.

Urouge looked up. "He's actually supposed to come here, to this auction hall, today."

Sanji growled. "If he messes up our plan to save Camie..."

Urouge raised an eyebrow. "Camie?"

"One of our friends, a mermaid who was kidnapped and brought here."

Urouge nodded. "Then my crew will help you. After that, I'll say my debt is paid. What was your plan?"

"We... we were going to buy her back, actually. If we make too much of a ruckus right here next to Marine Headquarters there'll be trouble."

"...If you can't buy her back, what were you going to do?"

"Destroy the place." Franky said with a smile. 

"Burn this disgusting place to the ground." Chopper said, looking haunted by the proceedings on the stage. 

"Grab Camie and run, finding and finding the keys to her cuffs." Hattchan said. 

"...If it comes to that, we'll help you." He said. "It's the least we can do, for you defeating Enel... and will you help us, again, to defeat him? For good this time?"

"Er... well, to be honest, we're focusing on getting to Fishman Island at the moment..."

"This Enel dude, he's the bad guy you guys fought on Sky Island before you met me, right?" Franky asked. 

Sanji nodded. "He's bad news. He kept an entire island terrified under his heel for years, and destroyed almost all of Skypiea before Luffy could take him down."

"Wait- he, Enel destroyed Skypiea?" He blinked, still smiling but enraged. "I thought you said your captain saved Skypiea?!"

"Well, he destroyed a lot of the Island Cloud, but the angels evacuated in time to Upper Yard." Name clarified. "They were still rebuilding when we left."

"...Well," Franky began. "If this dude is bad news, I can't forgive him for destroying a floating island!" He struck a pose. "Sides', you didn't have me on your side when you fought him then, let's see how he does in a rematch against our new _super_ crew!"

"We need to focus on Camie right now Franky!" Sanji and Chopper yelled, forcing the Cyborg down. 

"How noisy." Law commented. 

Urouge nodded. "Be wary, I'd contact your captain, then."

"He's heading this way right now, along with the rest of our crew."

* * *

 

The bidding war was horrendous, but Camie was overjoyed when she saw the Straw Hats in the far corner screaming every few seconds, raising their bid. She felt immensely guilty. "Going once~ Going twice~ Going~" the salesman said, when a King shot his hand up, sweat dropping down his face. "Oh! We're still going folks, the bounty is 190 million! Am I hearing two hundred?"

Nami gritted her teeth. "One ninety five!" She shouted. 

"T-Two hundred and five!" The King shouted back. 

Nami gritted her teeth. "We're using force then. That's all we have, we can't outbid him."

Sanji nodded, standing up. Urouge and his men moved to join them. Kidd raised an amused eyebrow, watching as the entirety of two crews of Supernovae got up to fight. Well, the ones in the Straw Hat crew with the highest bounties were still missing but- Kidd stared, shocked, as a flying fish crashed through the ceiling, Luffy jumping off its back and looking around, before noticing Camie. "Camie!" He shouted, and started running down the stairs. The soldiers protecting the auction moved to intercept him, but there was no holding him back. Within two minutes, more of the Straw Hats jumped in on Flying Fish, charging the stage, followed by the Fallen Monk Pirates. 

Law smiled. "They really are all insane."

In a scared rush by the sudden rampage of pirates and flying fish, most of the bidders started running for it. The hall then seemed to go silent as their way was blocked by a crack of thunder, and Enel stood at the entrance. "I'm afraid..." He began. "That many of you require Judgement." He pointed his finger at one of the bidders. "Far too much pride in yourselves, far too much superiority." He laughed wildly and zapped three people in an instant. 

"Enel!" Urouge screamed. 

"This asshole again." Kidd said, smiling and getting up. "Well, this clusterf!!k is only going to get worse, so I think it's about time we leaved."

Trafalgar Law raised an eyebrow. One of his men tapped his shoulder. "Are we going too? It's only a matter of time til the Marines surround us."

"Oh please, we'll already be surrounded." He said with a smile. "Six of the Twelve are gathered in one building, with a lot of high-profile hostages."

The Kidd Pirates returned inside with the sound of shooting, slamming the doors shut behind them. "We're surrounded by the Marines!"

"ENEL!" Urouge screamed, charging back up the stairs. 

"Ah, before you do that, please watch." Enel then zapped along the railing, appearing at the stage in an instant. Jumping up, he pulled the mermaid out of the tank by her chains and set her on the ground. "You may feel a slight tingle." He warned, grinning evilly. Firing a short bolt, the collar and cuffs snapped off of Camie in an instant. 

His Mantra barely warned him in time. He jumped back, as Straw Hat's fist came very close to his face. He had gotten faster, much, much faster. "Enel! What did you do to Camie, you bastard!" Luffy growled, continually throwing Gatling punches that Enel could barely dodge. 

"I freed her!" He protested, feeling fear, his body reacting instinctively to the first thing that dealt him a near-fatal amount of damage in his life.

"Oh?" Straw Hat's killing intent vanished almost instantly, and he let out a breath of relief. 

Enel sighed, standing up to his full height. "I, Enel, former god of the sky, have come to free all the slaves you have cruelly kept, and to Judge all of you who have the arrogance to keep your fellow mortals in chains!"

His Mantra read the minds of all of the bidders, and he charged up his hands. "Face Judgement!" He jumped back as Luffy's axe kick deflected his bolt into random directions, burning much of the stage. 

"What the hell?!" Luffy shouted. "I thought you were a good guy for a second!"

"I'm killing slave owners! How much more evil can you get than that, it's okay to kill evil people!" Enel protested.

Urouge interrupted the conversation by smashing Enel with his mace. 

"Hm." A voice interrupted, an old man walking on stage with a giant following him. "Ah, Hattchan?" He said, pleased. "What's going on?" He glanced around at the utter chaos of the room, the four crews of pirates, the three supernovae fighting in the middle of the stage, and the smoking husks of several bidders, as well as the mermaid free without him using his haki to deflect away the exploding chains. "Well, this is quite complicated, isn't it?" He scratched his head. A wave of force expanded from him, knocking out almost all the people in the room, sparing only the Straw Hat and Fallen Monk crews, and Enel, while leaving the rest to fight to stay awake. "I've been meaning to meet you, Straw Hat Luffy."

Enel smiled widely. Another power, and in his Mantra, he could feel it had a similar sound to the invincible invisible armor that the admiral and Chief had. And, upon hearing the sound with his Mantra, realized his Mantra itself also shared the same sound. The song of power. Of ambition. This was someone he had been wanting to meet.


	6. Chapter 6

Akainu frowned. "So, he's been making a mess all over Sabaody, he didn't lay low for long, did he?"

"He's been targeting kidnapping and human shops, er, public employment offices, so we can probably confirm his reasons for attacking Mariejoa were in fact to release the slaves there." The Marine shuffled through the papers quickly. "From what we can tell, he's been working entirely alone. Introducing himself sometimes to the slaves, and sometimes leaving without a word. Also, there have been multiple reported cases where the exploding cuffs seemingly deactivated and fell off on their own, and the slave-owners suddenly bursting into flames. Rumors are already spreading from Sabaody. The Human Auctioning, er-"

"Don't bother. It seems like this damn revolutionary's been successful. After this... no one will be setting up a human shop in Sabaody ever again, sea-faring folk are superstitious." He grunted. "And with the World Nobles gone, at least for this generation, there's no one to fund the Human Shop, or to pressure us to overlook it." The normally serious Admiral cracked a smirk. "Slavery is illegal, in the World Government. That's been true for centuries. Sabaody was a special case, at the request of the World Nobles, who symbolize justice... but now that they have no need for them, there's no need to keep it open."

"I, I understand sir!" The Marine said, grinning. "In that case..."

"I'll go myself." Akainu announced. "I'm taking the Pacifista, as well as a full battleship. Hopefully we'll be able to cut off all twelve of these damn buds before they bloom."

* * *

"Hehehe, well, I've seen for myself how crazy the Straw Hats are." Kidd said, standing near the door with his crew. "But I'm getting out of here before they call in reinforcements. This place is a favorite location of the World Noble's." He turned back towards the doors, and he smiled. "Don't bother getting up, I'll clean up all the guys outside for you, just cause I'm a nice guy. Just sit down and relax."

Luffy and Law both glared at him, before getting up to follow him out.

Enel stood at the stage with Rayleigh and Urouge, watching them leave, arguing with each other as they walked. He looked back, posing in his savior stance, arms spread wide, smiling wide. "I, Enel, have come to save you!" He announced to the slaves waiting off stage. With a great flash of electricity, the collars all fell of as one, and the slaves began rejoicing in their freedom. Nodding, he walked back to Rayleigh. 

"Well, you're melodramatic, aren't you?"

"Maybe so." Enel said with a shrug. "That power you used... you called it Haki. Is it a Devil Fruit power?"

"No, it's more mysterious than that." He said, with a sly grin. "However... You're using it right now, actually."

"You mean my Mantra? It is similar, but that's not the same. I can't hit things with that invisible shield. I can't force people into unconsciousness with only my willpower."

The Dark King thought about it, before turning to the Straw Hats. "I'll be in Grove 13, if we get split up." He said. He turned to the giant, "What about you, friend?"

"I'll stick with these guys." He said. "We'll escape somewhere."

Enel smiled. "There should be a rather large number of former slaves around, I've destroyed every Human Shop in the Archipelago, and freed everyone." Rayleigh's eyes widened in surprise. "Try to find as many as you can, band together. With that many former pirates and stronger-than-normal races of human around, you'll escape fine."

The giant nodded, before lumbering away through the rear of the stage, the others following, crying their thanks to Rayleigh, Enel, and the Straw Hats. Urouge stood glaring at Enel, the arrival of a legend like Rayleigh was what it took to pause his rampage. "...Enel, what the hell was that?"

"Straw Hat beat the shit out of me." Enel said. "I was lucky to survive. And that taught me something I needed to learn a long time ago. I'm not God. I had no right to judge Birka, no right to judge Skypiea or the Shandians or Blue Sea Dwellers."

Urouge tensed at the seemingly casual mention of the mass-murder of his people. 

"...I hold an enormous debt, Birkan. An enormous moral debt to God, to the survivors of my arrogance, and to those I've killed. I've been spared by God, despite everything I did, but I'm still damned for my grave sins. I need to redeem myself, I don't want to go to the abyss, Birkan. I've gone to the Moon, when I wasn't supposed to, and all I found there was a desert and ruins." Urouge's eyes widened. "In order to reach paradise, I need to pay my debt back to the world. I've decided from now on, I'm devoting my life to destroying those with my level of arrogance, whose heart's are as Evil as mine is. To freeing their victims, like Straw Hat freed Skypiea from me." He smiled. "I've already freed thousands and thousands of slaves. But saving a life does not cancel out the taking of one. I must improve the world more than I damaged it, or I'm Damned!"

"...Filth." Urouge said, simply. 

Enel blinked. "What?"

"You expect me to forgive you because you have some kind of great purpose? Because you're freeing slaves?!" He roared. "You're not doing it for them! You're not even doing it because you feel guilty! You're just trying to avoid your just punishment! You're just as arrogant as you've always been! God isn't some kind of debt collector, tallying your good and bad deeds! You can't cheat him, you can't trick him, you can't just easily do good deeds and wallow in praise and feel good about yourself when you're only saving your own skin!"

Enel shivered in place, furious. His hands crackled with electricity, his every impulse screaming at him to shred Urouge to pieces. "You.. You dare... You dare doubt my resolve?!" Enel screamed, incinerating one of the curtains and sending a lightning bolt flying off into the heavens. Clawing at his own face. He would have killed him, but he knew he held a moral debt to every living Birkan. So he stopped himself, and digested the words. Thinking it over for a few moments, he felt soul turn cold. "Damn it you! You're right!" He sunk to the floor. "I'm still damned! God Damn you!!!" He roared, only holding himself back with the knowledge that Urouge had hit the nail on the head. The other Birkan had taken several shaking steps back, staring at Enel in pure terror. "Then what do I do?!" Urouge was still frozen by Enel's destructive outburst, so the former God marched up to him, yanking the much taller man to the ground so he could stare into his eyes. "WHAT DO I DO?!"

Rayleigh put a haki-laden hand on Enel's shoulder, yanking him back and away from Urouge. " **Figure it out for yourself.**  Personally, I say, screw God. Do what makes you happy, follow your own ambitions. You can't rely on someone else for answers like that."

"When I did that, I _killed millions_." Enel growled out. 

"Would you now?"

"I... I don't know! I don't want to be damned, what do I... What..." The former god sighed, pinching his nose. "I thought it would be so simple! Karma is action, is intentional action! I intentionally killed thousands, and those sins are part of me. But... if I chose to do good for enough time, I thought I could gather enough good karma to beat it!"

Urouge got up, seemingly getting over his fear. "...How pathetic." He said. "To think, I feared you like I fear God."

Enel's face cracked with rage. " **One more life won't be too much to make up for**." He growled, glowing white and blue. 

"You can't allow yourself to think like that, you fool." Urouge disparaged. "If you think along those lines, you'll never be free from damnation." And with that, he turned his back on Enel. Looking to his crew he spoke, "Come on, we won't be left behind by the likes of Kidd and Law."

"Captain, what about Straw Hat?"

"We owe him a great debt. After all, he avenged Birka. He _killed_ Enel, in the end. Or all of the Enel that I want vengeance against, to hold a vendetta against this troubled wreck... I don't have the heart for it." He said with a savage, vindictive smile. Urouge's punches would never even touch Enel, but he had made the former god wince in pain with the words.

Enel shivered, he wanted to murder him so very much. But he was right, damn him, he was right. Sighing, he glared at the Fallen Monk Pirates as they left to follow the others and face against the Marines. 

Rayleigh raised an eyebrow, looking at Enel curiously. "What do you want old man?!" Enel growled, forgetting his desire for Haki in favor of his rage. "Want to fight?"

"Not particularly. Get control of yourself kid." He said, patting the former god's shoulder and turning to leave. 

Enel stood alone, trying to regain control of his anger. He had rescued all those slaves for nothing! All those judgements he made... all they did was add even more to his guilt!

He looked at the collar on the ground, from the mermaid. No. 

Not for nothing. He was looking at it wrong. Karma was action, and intention. He had not gained much good karma, as he had done it all selfishly. He didn't care that the people he judged were wrong, just that they were people he could take his murderous impulses on guilt-free. He didn't care that the slaves had a horrible plight, he just saw them as opportunities to decrease his guilt. 

But... God was using him, as a tool of judgement. The slaves didn't deserve what had happened to them, and God had used Enel to free them. That... that wasn't so bad? Was it?

He would have to think about this. 

An explosion outside made the building vibrate. He would think it over, but he would do that later.

* * *

 

Everyone still awake, minus the former slaves and Enel, filtered out of the front entrance, staring at the massacre of Marine soldiers, and the three Captains standing unscathed facing them. 

The marines were panicking now, firing with everything they could, trying to stay out of range from the pirates' devil fruits. "They don't even have a plan." Kidd commented, "It'll just be a brawl from here on out." He turned over to Luffy. "I'll see you in the New World, Straw Hat. This was fun, but the next time we meet, I wont' go easy on you."

"Hmm... But I'm the one who's going to find the One Piece." Luffy said, and the battle seemed to go silent. Law and Kidd stared at Luffy in surprise.

A marine took the chance of distraction to go for Kidd's neck, and the captain was saved by his first mate. "Hey Kidd, what're you standing around for?!" Killer asked.

"Hey Killer... on the course we took, saying something like that would just get you laughed at. Though I killed anyone who laughed at me. Thought from here on out, anyone without the guts to say those words won't survive. You bastards... let's meet up in the New World!"

The groups then split up, heading off their separate ways, breaking through the wall of marines that surrounded the auctioning hall.

"Straw Hat!" Urouge shouted as he ran in a different direction than them. "I still owe you a great debt! I'll pay you back in the New World!"

"Sure!" Luffy shouted back, running with Rayleigh back to his base. 

Kidd and Law went in the opposite direction, but were stopped when they came across what they thought was one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

Enel stood on the top of the auctioning hall, debating what to do with himself. The Marines had split up into several streams, running off after one crew or another, but a good number of them were taking shots at him from where he stood on the top of the auction hall. But soon he detected a change in their Mantra voices, they suddenly became more motivated, more confident. _Admiral Akainu is coming!_  and, mysteriously, _Pacifistas!_

Enel looked upwards, his eye catching on a cloud passing over. He popped a nearby bubble. What was God telling him to do now? He had freed all the slaves on Sabaody and in that weird kingdom on the Red Line, should he just search the world, continuing as he's been doing, but showing even more mercy? Being more... humble? He didn't know how to make himself a genuinely better person. He didn't care much for the slaves. He was saving them because it was a 'good deed' he could earn points for. He saved them for utterly selfish reasons, and he didn't know how to put that selfish desire away.

Even his desire to become less selfish was in fact a selfish desire. But it was unfair for God to expect him to not put himself first. Enel was Enel, Enel had to put Enel first, because everything Enel did started and ended with Enel. He couldn't overlook that! He couldn't stop that. The only way for him to do genuinely good acts was...

What constituted a good act? Urouge's voice in the back of his head, not one of Mantra, but simply one of the voices everyone had for their memories, told him he shouldn't be looking at salvation as a system he could cheat or manipulate, but he couldn't help it, it was the way his mind worked. What constitutes a good act, Enel thought again. It didn't have to be utterly selfless, with no benefit to him... it just had to be a little selfless. Improving the life of someone else when he didn't have to, without getting anything out of it himself. 

The problem was, no matter what 'selfless' acts he did do, they would still be done with intent of saving himself from the Abyss first and foremost. It was cruel, to hang that reward over Enel's head, as well as the punishment. If that reward existed, everything he did would be selfishly motivated.  _Personally, I say, screw God._ Rayleigh's voice this time around. 

That was the secret. 

He silently asked forgiveness for the minor blasphemy in agreeing with such a phrase, but that was what he needed to do. Forget the reward, forget the punishment, and then continuously commit at (least a little bit) selfless acts. 

He smiled, getting up and stretching. "That's a weight off my shoulders." He said simply. "Yahahahaha!"

"You... Enel!" A man shouted, approaching. Enel turned toward him, grinning. "You made a real mess out of Mariejoa. Made all our jobs harder. I'm afraid that you'll have to die here, before you make any more trouble of this magnitude!"His arms started bubbling with red-hot magma, pouring off of him and roasting the grass and wood underneath it. 

"Clear the way! Admiral Akainu is going to fight!" The marines shouted, taking formation to box Enel in, but staying far enough away they wouldn't be hit by the heat coming from the admiral. 

Enel zapped to stand in front of Akainu, grinning smugly. "Tell me, admiral, how many people have you killed?" In his enhanced Mantra, Enel watched thousands of images pass through the admiral's brain in a under a second. Enel noted the woman who had protected the ruins in Shandora. 

He owed a debt, to Straw Hat, he decided. Avenging the family of one of Straw Hat's crew wasn't exactly paying the debt back, but it was something he could do for them nonetheless. Besides, fighting other Logia could be fun. It was a pity the Chief had ruined his fight with the Light-Man up in the city. 

He ducked a lava-punch, and swiped out with his golden staff. The impact was taken by molten liquid rock, and Enel gave a sound of fury as the gold was vaporized in the magma. "Do you know how much that was worth?!" He cried. The admiral didn't deign to give him a response, and simply swung one magma punch after another at him. Enel dodged each one, just to be safe, and growled. Zapping away, underneath the archipelago, where he had left his tiny ship, he dumped all his remaining gold. It wouldn't do to have the admiral destroy everything Enel owned.

Within a minute, he had returned, his fists clenched. "I'm ready to fight again."

"Cocky bastard." Akainu growled, slamming his hands down and creating a wave of magma. Enel shot forward in a bolt of electricity and delivered a kick that could shatter bones to the face of the Magma-Man. Enel slammed his other leg on the opposite side of Akainu's face, locking him in place. Akainu grunted, and delivered an uppercut that pierced Enel's body through the chest with a flowing fountain of hot magma.

Magma burned hotter than red flames, and so in a fight, a Fire Logia would be burned by a Magma one. A red flame was about 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. Magma was as hot as  2400 degrees. But lightning... Lightning struck at full force was over 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Enel laughed, and fired a bolt of lightning through his legs, and the admiral was sent flying back by his own muscle reacting to the shock. Enel landed on his feet in the slowly-growing, slowly-cooling pool of lava. He stepped gingerly, hopping from one foot to the other as his soles turned to lightning and reformed upon making contact with the heat. "You know, if you had blocked my attacks with haki rather than relying on your inferior logia, you might be in better shape."

The admiral growled, his wounds melting and reforming, recovering from the bolt rapidly. Logias allowed one to not only pass through most attacks, but recover from the ones that do manage to hit. "I'm going to kill you for daring to stand against the World Nobles." He said resolutely, and threw a pressurized steam of magma that Enel let blast through him, hitting and destroying the entire auction hall behind him. Enel found himself glad that all the former slaves had made it out. The Admiral threw stream after stream of it, before a new thought crossed his mind, after seeing the destruction to the ground he was doing. 

Pointing both hands into the sky, he rained down chunks of magma that first impacted with the root they were standing on, shattering it and creating huge craters, and instantly after exploding into pools of magma, burning the rest of the way through. Within seconds, where the Human Auctioning House once stood was simply a long, flaming drop into open sea. He himself stood at the edge of it. Grinning, he taunted Enel, who was falling among the flaming debris of the root. "No Devil Fruit User is immune to the sea, not even the "Invincible" ability!"

"Is that so?" Enel said, from where he was suddenly standing behind Akainu. "Tell me, Admiral, is this the first time you fought someone who could read your mind?"

The admiral did a magma-spewing spin kick, and the marines, who had just barely dodged the admiral's meteor shower of lava, ran for it as the battle expanded past its previous limit. Enel ducked underneath it, and attempted a palm-thrust to Akainu's chest, to knock him into the water, but the admiral merely dodged the blow, utilizing his own observation haki. 

Enel grinned. When two masters of Mantra went against each other, it was a beautiful sight to behold, in which the person with the fastest reaction time and fastest thinking time and the fastest muscles won, a dance, where two fighters, their bodies nearly existing in the same space, continually dodged everything the other dished out as they themselves dodged their opponent's attacks. It would end only when one's speed of muscle and thought and reaction dodging overcame the other's Mantra. 

Enel, however, was unparalleled when it came to Mantra. 

The dance began, but the admiral was sloppy, he specialized in armament, but he couldn't focus enough to dodge Enel while still trying to hit the former god with a haki-shielded magma fist. Just one blow on the admiral's side would kill Enel, while Enel, not knowing armament, had to instead force Akainu into the water to beat him. 

Bolt after bolt was fired and deflected by the invisible shields, sent to bounce and crackle and fizzle out against the ocean below or the root ground around them. Wave of lava after wave spewed from the admiral, destroying the area where they stood and everything that surrounded it. 

Forming fully into their elements as their fight increased in magnitude, the sounds of thunder cracking the air and the burbling roar of magma became deafening, as orange-red liquid light bent around white-blue plasma light. Those watching stared in awe and terror, as the stream of mixing elements rose further into the air, raining destruction on everything below them, before arching over the great hole in the mangrove root, and collapsing into the water with a massive -VREEEE- of electricity passing through water and a defeaning ~HISSSSS~ as the magma cooled to stone in the water. Standing on opposite sides of one such clump of newly-formed rock, breathing heavily, stood the two Logias. Of the two, Akainu was worse for wear. 

The Logias had a hierarchy, each had its superiors and its weaknesses. Akainu's power was inferior to Enel's, but in the end, he more than kept up with his haki and his experience in battle. 

But an Admiral's pride refused to allow him to have a single pirate, not even a Yonkou, barely a rookie, be his equal. In a roar of rage, He created a truly massive wave of lava, slamming it down into the water below, and he jumped down, running across the forming stone, and leaping to meet Enel head on. Enel shook his head, and jumped forward, dodging around the admiral and forcing him to follow. 

They stood on the forming, and slowly sinking, steaming rocks above the sea. Akainu narrowed his eyes. Here, all they had to do was knock the other into the water. The admiral took a step back, ready to blast below him, destroying the rocks and launching himself up, when he noticed Enel tensing to jump just before he actually did so. The man's Mantra was annoying as hell. 

"A stalemate, it seems." Enel said, smiling. Enjoying himself. "Well, at least until I learn Haki for myself." Akainu's eyes widened, and he roared. 

"I'm not allowing you to get any stronger than you already are, criminal!"

Enel waved goodbye, having decided there would be no more point in continuing the fight, and zapped away. Losing track of Enel within the range of his own observation Haki, Akainu sighed, jumping from the slowly sinking rock back to the top of the root where his men waited. Halfway there, a lightning bolt struck, fired from an entirely different Yarukiman tree than the one they were on, and hit his spine. He stopped in mid-air, the shock paralyzing his body, and he fell back down, hitting one of his own boiling rocks before slipping into the sea, and after that, unconsciousness. 

"It would be prudent, to not allow you to stronger than you already are, admiral." Enel repeated, standing near the other end of the archipelago. He had struck down angels on lovely beach with the force of million lightning strikes from where he sat in Upper Yard. This distance, with only a single bolt was child's play.

* * *

 

The Pacifista had begun their attack on the Eleven other Supernovae. The Kidd and Law Pirates together took on one, barely surviving the experience, while Hawkins, Drake, Appoo, and Urouge's groups took down another.

The Straw Hats had barely beaten the first sent after them, but were now held back by Sentoumaru and a second Pacifista, prompting the interference of Rayleigh. 

"The Dark King, huh? I don't have any business with you." The not-yet marine said, getting into a sumo stance. "But even you can't break through my defense, I'm the hardest wall in the world."

"Is that so?" Rayleigh responded. The two exchanged a flurry of Haki-laden blows, bouncing away from each other. The Straw Hats running for their lives to get away from the rampaging android. 

As each Straw Hat was pushed over their limit, one by one, first Zoro, then Brook, then Usopp, Rayleigh glared behind him. "Get out of my way, do you think the Navy really had time to deal with **_me_** right now?!"

Sentoumaru sweatdropped. "You're stronger than even Uncle Kizaru..." He admitted. "I can't beat you here, but really, are you going to come out of retirement, stand against the full force of the marines, for the sake of these rookies?!"

"These rookies... have inherited the will of someone precious to me." He said. "Now, **get out of my way**."

"Emperor's Haki doesn't affect me!" Sentoumaru shouted, wincing from the sudden onslaught of willpower on his brain. 

"But it can distract you." Rayleigh said, growling and releasing a kick Sentoumaru didn't have time to block with his 'invincible wall', knocking away the youngster. He rushed, running at full speed, to save as many of the Straw Hats as he could from the Pacifista. It was admirable that they defeated even one, but now they stood no chance, exhausted and divided. 

He was halfway there when Kuma made himself known, blasting away Roronoa Zoro. Rayleigh blinked, Zoro was there one moment, gone the next. Grinding his teeth together, he ran to stop the Warlord of the Sea. But before he could reach him, PX-1, and then Brook, followed by Usopp, and then a vengeful Sanji were sent to who-knows-where. Rayleigh sighed, jumping to stand before Kuma. "What the hell do you think you're doing Kuma?!" Rayleigh growled. 

Sentoumaru caught up, already resuming his attack on Rayleigh and distracting the Dark King again. "What the hell did you do to PX-1?!" The man asked. 

"Don't get in my way." Kuma ordered. He bent down, repulsing Sentoumaru out of earshot and whispering to Rayleigh, before returning to his task of annihalating the Straw Hats.

"What do I do?" Luffy asked, watching in horror. "What the hell do I do?!"

Franky disappeared, and then Nami, who stared at Luffy with a terrified expression, whispering "help" just before she disappeared. 

Luffy's sense of reason shattered with that last blow to his mind, and he charged, a ferocious beast. "Robin! Chopper!" He screamed, his last two crewmates. 

In the background, a useless noise, barely registered, Luffy heard thunder. "STOP IT!" He screamed.

Chopper disappeared. "STOP IT PLEASE!!!" Luffy shouted. 

Robin turned and began running as fast as she could, the last of the Straw Hats beside their captain. Seeing the shadow appear above her, she turned to make eye contact with her captain, "Luffy-" She began, but then disappeared in a second. A flash of light exploded a moment later, and Kuma, for an instant, registered a 500,000,000 bounty appear for an instant before vanishing. 

Luffy broke down, slamming the ground with his fists. He hadn't saved a single one of them.

* * *

 

Enel flew through the air, jumping in elemental form, before reaching up and grabbing hold of her, trying to yank her back, but it was impossible, her momentum was too great. The impact of the repelling had knocked her unconscious, and Enel found himself, with horror, far above the sea with no land underneath. Gripping tightly to Robin, he sighed in irritation. Already, Sabaody had disappeared in the distance. It was too late to jump back. 

It had been a spur of the moment thing, as soon as he detected the Straw Hat's distress, he had come to watch them fight. At first, he had been amused, but then after watching one after the other disappear, he felt like it would be a good time to intervene. Straw Hat was of particular interest to God, it seemed to Enel, so doing good deeds for them might be the right course. The last crew member was the intelligent woman, the archaeologist who on Skypiea had become one of his five chosen, but then attempted to manipulate Enel. The woman who's family was killed by Akainu, if he had inferred correctly from the admiral's memories. 

He wondered if he should jump off once they passed close enough to an island, but there would be no way to bring the woman with him. Considering this, he wondered why he should care. She wasn't stopping, and nothing he could do would stop that. Either she would land in a spot of ocean, and he would drown with her, or she would land on an island, and he would be there to watch her splatter onto the ground...

well, there actually might be a way to get around that, if he used himself as a cushion...

It was a selfless act, that may or may not count toward his salvation, but he decided he wouldn't focus on that. He was doing this because he could, because he, at the very least, had an intelligent conversation with the woman, and because he had been helped by her captain. He could at the very least try to save her life. 

In the meantime, he prayed that his gold would still be waiting for him when he got back.


	7. Chapter 7

Robin awoke, woozy, in a warm room. A half-dozen blankets were piled on top of her, and the fireplace was roaring. The room was a decadent place, with paintings on the walls and furs on the floor. 

And sitting in a chair across from her was Enel. 

"Don't bother pretending to go back to sleep," He said, "I can read all your thoughts, remember?"

She pulled the cover off of herself and regarded him cooly. "How could I forget?"

Enel's eyes drifted downward, and he grinned maliciously. "There's no need to be wary of me. I'm on your side. In fact, I was trying to save you."

"Save me from-" she blinked and sank lower into the mattress as she remembered what had happened. "-Kuma. Saobody, the whole crew!" She glared at Enel. "Where are the rest of them?"

"Who knows?" He answered with a shrug. "I don't. I barely have any idea where _we_ are, either. The large man hit you, and you were sent flying. I thought I could begin paying my debt to your captain by saving your life. I... bit off more than I could chew, in regards to that. If I had known we would be launched across the world, I wouldn't have done anything."

"How honest of you, Enel." She picked herself up and tossed the blankets to the side. She was a little wobbly at first, but rather than the weakness of her legs, she was most surprised with the pain in her stomach. 

"I've had food prepared for us," he gestured to the table on his side, laid out with a full meal. It was cool, but hungry as she was, Robin wouldn't turn down anything. 

"Thank you," she said simply. She began picking pieces off the plate and eating them as quickly as she could. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"Taking the flight into account, five days. During the flight itself you seemed to be preserved in some way, so you haven't starved, but we had to make you drink while you slept."

"The flight..." she walked over to a window. "Where are we now then?"

"A place called Tequila Wolf. A massive bridge connecting one island to another. Its such a shame that you don't have milky roads down her in the Blue Sea. This project could have been finished in a few decades, rather than seven centuries."

"Seven centuries?" Robin looked out at the snowy, eerily flat landscape outside the window. "This is one of the oldest structures in the world."

"And built completely by slaves. I freed them all, just like I did in Saobody." He said, grinning. "And in response, I've been declared king! Yahahaha. Their old guards are now my servants."

"What do you plan to do with your new kingdom?" Robin asked, amused in a dark way. 

"Not quite sure yet. You see, I already decided what kingdom I wanted if I were to decide to be a king again. There was this beautiful city, like a jeweled crown, on top of the Red Line."

"Mariejois?"

"Yes! That's the one."

"How ambitious."

"Yes, yes. The last time I was there this monster of a man very nearly killed me. Imagine, another person able to touch me as your captain could. I have a feeling its not even a Devil Fruit power. Just something people can learn."

"Rayleigh called it Haki."

"Yes. I'll have to learn to get around that."

"...So you've actually been there?" Robin asked, interested. "How did you arrive?"

"When I came back down from Fairy Vearth, I landed nearby. I had come to a kind of spiritual revelation at the hands of your captain. I realized I am not a God." Enel frowned and picked up a fruit from the table, stuffing it in his face and swallowing before continuing. "And so, I need to earn my redemption. I decided to start by punishing others who think themselves Gods." He shrugged. "So I killed every slave owner in Mariejois."

Robin blinked once, processing the words. "Excuse me, Mister Not-a-God, but did you say you killed every slave owner in Marijois?"

"Yes, yes. Of course, I realized after that killing people doesn't make up for killing people, so it was counter-productive in the end-"

"You mean to say the Celestial Dragons are... dead?"

"I didn't kill any dragons. Just some humans."

"I can't even begin to think about what this means for the world... those people were the rulers of the World Government! I spent most of my life thinking of them as invincible! They have the power to wipe islands from the map, command the marines, have the power of the Admirals..." 

"OH?" Enel asked, grinning wider and wider. "Go on! I like the sound of this!"

Robin shook her head and turned back to the meal. "Although... I suppose it doesn't affect Captain and the others for now. There's no use worrying about it." She cracked a slightly evil grin. "In fact, the chaos might be beneficial in making him King of the Pirates." If the navy had other things to worry about, it would be easier to track down the poneglyphs as well.

"Wait... if the Celestial Dragons ruled the oceans of the world, and I killed them, does that make me the King of the Pirates?"

"No, no, to become the Pirate King, you must claim the One Piece." Robin explained.

"The One Piece?" Enel asked. 

"The greatest collection of treasure in the world, gathered by the previous Pirate King before his death."

"Oh! Yahaha, I see why your Captain is after it. You blue sea dwellers were in Skypiea to begin with looking for my city of gold, correct?"

"I still haven't forgiven you destroying that place."

"I didn't destroy it, I harvested what was valuable." Enel defended.

"It was priceless, and you had your peopled destroying the ruins."

The door creaked open, and a small girl dressed in an extravagant fur coat, and a prisoner's uniform underneath, came in pushing a cart full of more warm food. "Here's the food!" she said, before walking over to where Robin was sitting and smiling. "I'm glad to see you're awake. I was worried when I saw you out there in the cold."

"This is your other savior." Enel said to Robin. "She was all set to hide you away like a lost Cloud Fox in her basement."

"Why thank you." Robin said, smiling down at her. 

"It's no trouble!" She beamed. "I just can't believe it. A few days ago, everyone here was so miserable, and now look!" she twirled and buried her face in the coat, and pulled a fruit from the dishes. "We're living like royalty now!"

"All thanks to King Enel." Enel said, smugger than any snake.

"Yeah!"

"Go off and tell the others that our guest has woken up. She's my second-in-command for now."

"Yes sir King Enel!" And off she went.

"You can't do anything without getting worship, can you?" She giggled. 

"Silence wench." He growled. "I deserve their praise, this time. I could have just left. Hell, I could have left you with them and went on my merry way. I already did my good deed to your captain in just cushioning your fall."

"I'm so grateful. We'll call it even for electrocuting me."

"You deserved that. You were trying to trick me." Enel said, going back to his meal. 

"I did not. But I suppose it's really meaningless to discuss. I'm a pirate after all, I was there to steal the same gold you were there to steal. I'll call you even with me, but you haven't even started making it even to us unless Captain acknowledges you."

"Ffffff-"

* * *

 "The area is clear, repeat, clear." The cloaked man whispered into his baby Den-Den Mushi. 

"This is wrong. There's not even been a single patrol." Came another paranoid whispered voice. 

"Cipher Pol activity? Could we have been compromised?" 

"Negative. Don't panic just yet. There's been absolutely zero reports of Cipher Pol in the area."

"Hasn't stopped them before."

"Shut up. You're harming morale. But keep your eyes open."

The revolutionary nodded, and snapped the shell down back in place, moving forward, dodging from shadow to shadow amongst the ruins of the bridge.

Tequila Wolf. One of the World Government's longest-lasting projects. 700 years in the making. While it had been the target of revolutionaries throughout the existence of the World Government, the most recent band, united under Dragon, had left it alone. 

His reasons were simple and well-thought out, just like almost everything Dragon did. 

First off, it was a drain on the World Government's resources in the East Blue. It showed. The East Blue was the "weakest sea" in part because of the bridge. Much of the tax and raw materials being transported in the East Blue were to Tequila Wolf. And the majority of Marine and Navy power in the East Blue was devoted almost completley to protecting these channels. Pirates looking for a big catch would go after shipments heading toward Tequila Wolf, and would get overwhelmed by the large number of war ships defending the bridge. And pirates who ignored the bridge didn't make enough money to improve their crews or weapons, and weren't enough of a threat to draw the full force of a warship upon them. 

Tequila Wolf, while built by slaves and prisoners, a symbol of the power of the world government, in the long run, made the East Blue a more peaceful area with much less direct interference from the World Government. Until now, the injustice wasn't enough to outweigh the ultimate benefit that the bridge had on the East Blue. 

But that all changed a few weeks ago. The situation in the Grand Line was getting tense enough that Dragon needed a distraction the World Government couldn't ignore. Disrupting the largest economic, military, and political project the World Government had in this entire fifth of the world would be that distraction. 

Besides, the time for freeing the multiple generations of slaves and war prisoners had long-since passed. The revolutionaries were overdue. 

"I'm on the ground level. No guards sighted." Whispered the revolutionary's Den-Den Mushi from his wrist. 

"Confirmed." He whispered back. Another half-dozen scouts echoed his reply. 

He climbed onto the top level of the bridge, and made his way carefully through the snow, sticking to already-tread paths when possible, and subtly wiping away his own footprints when he couldn't. Through a series of whispered acknowledgements, the team of scouts inched closer and closer to the current 'headquarters' of the bridge's government workers. 

As the bridge got longer, the camps of the slaves used to build it moved along with it. Ancient ruins of work camps littered the entirety of the bridge. Which was good for the spies, as that meant there were a thousand options regarding hiding spots. 

In the distance, lights could be seen in the windows of the work houses, guard towers, and other facilities. More, than would be usual in the dead of night. 

"Is it normal for them to keep the lights on throughout the night?" Came a nervous whisper from his Den-Den Mushi. 

"Negative." 

"The camp supposedly has a very clear curfew and lights-off time. We should be seeing lights only in the guard towers."

"What's the situation, then?"

The revolutionary looked at the lights, determined. "That's what we're here to find out. Move onward."

"Confirmed."

The group made their way into the 'town' that was the work site. And what they saw was absolutely to their surprise. There were work-rooms and holding cells stuffed with people who were obviously guards, tied up, dressed down, and furious. And walking the streets were people in a mixture of the guard's clothing and the prisoners' outfits.

"What the hell is going on?"

"I can answer that." The revolutionary felt the hairs on his neck stand on end, crackling with static electricity. "Please, contact the other six of your group. You're all welcome to come to my palace. Or rather, the former Chief Warden's office."

"Who are you?!" The revolutionary growled, stepping away from him. "What happened here?"

"I am called Enel, former god of the sky, and a revolution, obviously." Enel answered, "Now then, don't delay. I'm not having more food brought up for you." And with that, he turned to bright blue light, and crackled away along nearby iron rails. 

"...I think we should make a report to Dragon." 

**Author's Note:**

> \--  
> This is actually the second time I'm posting this work. Unfortunately, I was in a bad mood one day, and was fed up with the story, as I realized I didn't like the direction it was going in. So I decided to orphan it (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4532766/chapters/10315335)  
> I immediately regretted it, so, I guess there's nothing to do but copy/paste it back into its proper form. To those who bookmarked and left kudos on the original, I thank you for your support.


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